AT THE PLXCE 
WHICH IS CALLED ^ * 

CALVARY 



EDWIN H.BURCE.SS 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

©jpp iopfrigp $0. ... 

Shelf. ^? AS 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



AT THE PLACE WHICH IS 
CALLED CALVARY. 




NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Copyright, 1890, by 
Anson D. f. Randolph & Company. 



THIS LITTLE VOLUME 

TO 

MY MOTHER 

AND 

MY SISTER MAGGIE. 



I 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I. At the Place which is Called Calvary, 7 
II. Jesus our Friend, ----- 37 

III. "IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER?" - - 57 

IV. Setting the Plumb-line, - - - 74 
V. Excuses, - -- -- --97 

VI. Repentance, - - - - - -123 

VII. Christian Unity and Humility, - - 144 
VIII. Burdens, and the Burden-Bearer, - 165 



I. 



AT THE PLACE WHICH IS CALLED 
CALVARY. 

A COMMUNION SERMON. 

"And when they were come to the place which is 
called Calvary." — Luke xxiii. 33. 

Nearly 1,900 years ago a certain baby boy- 
was born. Four thousand years before that 
His birth had been foretold. When Adam fell, 
the Lord said to the Tempter : " I will put 
enmity between thee and the woman, and be- 
tween thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise 
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel ";* 
and He referred to this child. Jacob speaks of 
Him when he says: "The sceptre shall not 
depart from Judah, nor a ruler's staff from be- 
tween his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto 

* Gen. iii. 15. 

(7) 



8 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



Him shall the obedience of the people be."* 
The brazen serpent, the sacrifices, the priests, 
the cities of refuge, were but types of Him. Mo- 
ses speaks of Him as a Prophet, David as a 
Priest, Isaiah as " Wonderful, Counsellor, 
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the 
Prince of Peace." f He is the golden thread that 
runs from Genesis to Malachi. All eyes were 
looking for Him, for bright things were prom- 
ised for His advent. Oh, surely when He does 
come, He will be welcomed with loud acclaim ! 
Surely earth will catch up the angelic strain, 
" Glory to God in the highest " ! 

Well, He comes. Angels hail Him with an- 
them. A star appears in His honor, and leads 
the way to His cradle. Let us arise and follow 
that star, that we may join in His welcome and 
do Him homage. We stop at the Temple, say- 
ing, " Surely He is here "; but the priests have 
heard nothing of His advent. We hasten to 
Herod's palace, thinking He may be there; but 
He is not. We enter Simeon's house, for we 
remember that "it had been revealed unto 
* Gen. xlix. 10. t Isaiah ix. 6. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 9 



him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see 
death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." * 
But no ; the old saint has not seen Him. Still 
the star moves on, and on we follow. But see ! 
It stops ! The Promised of the Lord must be 
there ! And where do we find Him ? In a 
crowded cave which served the purpose of a 
barn, " because there was no room for them 
in the inn."f " Born in a stable and laid in a 
manger." 

But hark ! What means this uneasiness in 
the royal palace? Herod is seeking His young 
life to destroy it. " Arise," Joseph, " and take 
the young child and His mother and flee into 
Egypt-" X An infant exile ! " Despised and 
rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and ac- 
quainted with grief ; and we hid, as it were, 
our faces from Him ; He was despised, and we 
esteemed Him not." § 

Twelve years pass, and we find Him in the 
Temple astonishing the Rabbis with His ques- 
tions and answers, and then for eighteen years 

* Luke ii. 26. t Luke ii. 7. 

X Matt. ii. 13. § Isaiah liii. 3. 



io At the Place which is called Calvary. 



He drops almost entirely from our view. But 
at the age of thirty — a comparatively young 
man — He comes forth as the Sun of Right- 
eousness to lighten this dark world. Though 
poor and homeless, with only twelve humble 
attendants, He treads the earth in the majesty 
of Divinity. Devils fear and obey Him ; wind 
and wave do His bidding; disease and death 
acknowledge Him as their Lord. Though 
" in all points, tempted like as we are," He is 
" without sin." * His great purpose is to lift up 
mankind to perfect holiness. But with His 
majesty and purity is blended infinite tender- 
ness. Very God and very man, His heart is 
filled with love to God and humanity. If 
God's nature had not been fully revealed to 
man before, He, the Christ, now manifests it. 
We follow Him through His sojourn amongst 
us, and we are charmed by His hatred of every- 
thing that is mean and sinful, by His friendship, 
His tender sympathy, His self-denial for the 
sake of others, His love for all. Not alone in 
His power over devils and the forces of nature 
* Heb. iv. 1 5. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 



ii 



do we see the God, but also in the perfection of 
His character. Fain would we pause at Beth- 
any. Oh, what a heaven His company must 
have been to Martha and Mary and Lazarus ! 
Fain would we linger at Gethsemane and weep 
over His agony on account of sin. But we 
cannot do so now. We must follow on. But 
when we arrive at the climax of His work, 
when we " come to the place which is called 
Calvary," we kneel at the foot of the Cross, 
rinding there a theme well worthy of engaging 
our thoughts through time and eternity. As 
we consider a few of the lessons it would teach 
us, may the Holy Spirit apply the shed blood 
to the saving of souls. 

I. Calvary tells of God's love to us. I say 
* God's love," for Christ, in His divine nature, 
was the Second Person of the most glorious 
Trinity ; and through Him was expressed the 
love of the Three — One God. Oh, I wish we 
only had a greater realization of the wondrous 
love of God ! I do not mean that we should 
be able to measure it. That would be idle; 
for God's love will ever remain to us a vast, 



12 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



fathomless ocean. I do not mean that we 
should be able to express it. Do you not 
know that the hardest subject on which one 
can speak is the love of God — the hardest text 
in the whole Bible, John iii. 16? Why so? 
Because God's love is so great that we cannot 
comprehend it, much less express it. Just as 
one who is greatly impressed with something 
grand may only be able to give expression to 
his feelings in exclamations of rapture or awe : 
so, as we look into the Divine love, we exclaim 
" Hallelujah ! " " The love of Christ which 
passeth knowledge." * Now I do not wish that 
we could express the greatness of that love. I 
am glad that it is so great that it is inexpressi- 
ble. But I do wish we had a keener apprecia- 
tion of the fact that He does thus love us. I 
wish we only drew near more often u to the 
place which is called Calvary." 

" Calvary " ! Oh, how that word thrills us ! 
And no wonder, for it has thrilled the world. 
With what pathos, with what power, it tells 
the " old, old story of Jesus and His love." 
* Eph. iii. 19. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 13 



And such a story ! A holy God loving sinful 
man, and because He thus loved him, suffer- 
ing and dying for him. You all know the cir- 
cumstances. Man had broken God's law. Jus- 
tice cried out that that law should not be 
trampled under foot — that its honor should be 
maintained. But who is going to honor it on 
man's behalf? Myriads of worlds cannot. An* 
* gels or archangels cannot ; for, being created 
beings themselves, perfect obedience is required 
of them as a matter of duty, so that nothing 
they can do can honor the law on behalf of an- 
other. Then, shall man himself have to suffer 
the penalty ? 

Upon the throne of Heaven, see Him who is 
co-equal with the Father, — the Omnipresent, 
the Omniscient, the Omnipotent, the embodi- 
ment of majesty. " All things were made by 
Him, and without Him was not anything made 
that was made." * He is looking down upon 
man, and His heart is filled with love for him, 
— love tender, strong, unspeakable. But see ! 
He rises from His throne ; He lays aside His 
* John i. 3. 



14 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



royal robes; He assumes our nature; He 
suffers ; He bleeds ; He dies. But ere He 
yields up the ghost, He cries triumphantly, 
" It is finished."* The divine law which man 
had broken is now satisfied. Earth and Heav- 
en catch up the sacred shout, while Justice 
sheathes the sword ; for God can now " be 
just, and the justifier of him that believeth in 
Jesus." f 

Oh, then, if we are ever tempted to doubt 
the love of Christ, let us look away to the 
Cross. See the lacerated back and bleeding 
brow which tell of cruelty and ignominy. 
Hear the taunts and trie jeers from rulers and 
rabble. Hear, too, the awful cry as His Father 
hides His face from Him, " My God, my God, 
why hast Thou forsaken me ? " % Oh, what love 
He must have had to leave Heaven and to en- 
dure all that He did endure, for His enemies. 
Oh, what love that He did not descend from 
the Cross when they challenged Him to do so, 
and let vile, ungrateful man die. Oh, what 
love is expressed in that triumphant shout, 

* John xix. 30, t Rom. iii. 26. \ Mark xv. 34. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 15 



" It is finished." It is past our comprehension. 
We are awed by its greatness. 

To-day we are met to celebrate the Lord's 
Supper. What should be our feelings on such 
an occasion ? There are very many who seem 
to think that before they can worthily partake 
of it they must conjure up a spirit of sadness. 
They feel as if they were called upon to sym- 
pathize with Christ in His sufferings. And so 
they go to the Lord's table as they would to a 
friend's funeral — the whole soul is draped in 
mourning. For this reason many do not en- 
joy the communion season. It is a burden to 
them. 

Now, while there should be great solemnity, 
there should be no depressing sadness. For we 
do not celebrate the death of a dead Saviour, 
but of a risen and exalted one. The Bible in- 
deed says, " For as often as ye eat this bread, 
and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's 
death till He come." * But what are we to un- 
derstand by this? That through the Lord's 
Supper we proclaim, — 1st. That Christ has died 
* 1 Cor. xi. 26. 



1 6 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



to satisfy the demands of the law on our be- 
half ; and therefore there is salvation through 
Him for all who wish to be saved from the de- 
filement of sin. 2d. God's love as manifested 
in that death — that He " commendeth His 
own love toward us, in that, while we were yet 
sinners, Christ died for us." * To proclaim alone 
by the observance of this sacrament, the simple 
fact that Christ died, is to us relatively unim- 
portant. But to proclaim that He died in or- 
der that we might be saved, that He died be- 
cause of His love to us, gives it a new meaning. 
It makes the Supper an epitome of the Gospeh 
By this sacrament we proclaim to saint and sin- 
ner alike, the Lord's death on our behalf. Oh, 
then, on such an occasion as this, instead of be- 
ing depressed with sadness, our hearts should 
rejoice in the renewed assurance of God's love. 
And so as we partake of the bread and wine, 
emblems of the body and blood of our Lord, 
let this thought come to our minds: these 
things point me back "to the place which is 
called Calvary," and tell me that God loves me 
* Rom. v. 8. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 17 



and wishes to save me, notwithstanding I am 
so unworthy, so sinful. 

But if Calvary, if these emblems of the body 
and blood of our Lord, tell of God's love to us, 
do they not also appeal to our love ? We are 
filled with admiration as we think of that Holy 
One suffering for man — vile, ungrateful man. 
But a still, small voice whispers, " This I did 
for thee." For thee ! For me ! That brings 
the matter home. Now what should be our 
feelings? If a man rushes into a burning 
building, and rescues another, do we not ad- 
mire him ? But if we are in that building, and 
he rescues us, how strongly it appeals to our 
gratitude and love. We would feel that we 
could never repay him. Then shall we have 
less gratitude, less love, to the God-man, who 
with a love beyond our loftiest conceptions, 
voluntarily leaves a glorious Heaven, and gives 
Himself up to suffering, privation, and insult, 
and finally to an ignominious and awful death, 
that we might be saved from sin ? Can we wit- 
ness that betrayal and denial without wishing 
to be true to Him? Shall we see Him buffeted 



1 8 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



and spit upon for our sakes, without espousing 
His cause ? Shall we see Him in the garden 
mourning over our sins, and not mourn over 
them ourselves? He was crowned with thorns 
for us. Shall we not crown Him king of our 
hearts? He died to obtain our freedom. Shall 
we not be His willing followers forever ? Oh, 
that the love of Christ might constrain us — that 
we might love Him, because He first loved us. 

" This it is, O God, that moveth me, 
And draweth out my soul to sigh for Thee : 
Upon the Cross I look, .... 
I see Thee bear it all, and meekly die ; 
And then my heart leaps up in one great cry, 
My soul is moved within me at such love. 
O God, my Lord, were there no heaven above, 
Or hell below, yet still my love and fear 
Would centre in this thought : Thou, Lord, art near. 
Nor hope, nor heaven have I but thus to be 
A ransomed sinner, ever, Lord, with Thee." 

II. But while Calvary proclaims God's love, 
it also proclaims His justice — that while He 
loved man and wished to save him, He would 
not do so at the expense of His own law. The 
demands of Divine justice must first be met be- 
fore He can be merciful. And so it was in sat- 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 



19 



isfying these demands that the wondrous love 
of God was revealed. Standing between the 
outraged law and the sinner, Christ, by satisfy- 
ing the demands of that law, manifested the 
love of God. If He had not been so just we 
would never have known that He was so loving. 

There is a great deal of comfort for the Chris- 
tian in the thought that God is absolutely just. 
If in order to save us, He had violated justice 
and truth, what guarantee would we now have 
that He might not again violate His word, and 
cast us aside? But when, rather than these 
should be trampled under foot, the Second Per- 
son of the Godhead humbled Himself, and suf- 
fered all the shame and ignominy that was 
heaped upon Him, we are now assured that 
having told us that if we believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ we shall be saved, He will keep 
His word ; for justice and truth, as well as 
mercy, are pledged to its fulfilment. Let us 
think of this when we approach the Lords 
table. 

But what consolation can the unrepentant 
have from the fact that God is so unswerving 



20 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



in His justice? None whatever. Those who 
hold that because Christ has died for mankind 
everybody will be saved whether they serve 
God or not, have a wrong idea of the Atone- 
ment. They speak as if Christ had bribed 
Justice to be lenient. Whereas He died in or- 
der that God might be able, in consistence with 
the honor and satisfaction due to His own law, 
to save all who wish to be reconciled to Him, 
and to be freed from sin. Christ Himself tells 
us that the design of God in giving up the Son 
was " that whosoever believeth on Him should 
not perish, but have eternal life." * Thus far Di- 
vine Justice can go without violating its princi- 
ples, but no further. It does not, nor cannot, 
pardon those who instead of submitting them- 
selves to God hold out in rebellion against 
Him. For let it be remembered that it never 
has, and cannot, relax its demands. It is just 
as uncompromising now as when man first 
sinned or when Christ died on Calvary. Jus- 
tice knows no such thing as mercy. Those 
who believe in Christ are saved, not because 
*John iii. 16, 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 21 



* Justice is merciful, but because Christ has met 
its demands for them. Therefore those who 
will not accept Him as their Saviour, who will 
not submit to God, and strive after holiness, 
must bear the shaft in their own bosom. 

Those who hold this theory have also a 
wrong idea of what salvation in its fulness 
means. They think of it as simply a getting to 
Heaven. But as it also and chiefly means res- 
toration to the image of God, to be made holy 
as God is holy, and as holiness on the part of 
those who are capable of choosing involves 
choice, an act of the will, it must be evident 
that before we can be saved we ourselves must 
choose it, and aspire after it. Therefore it is 
further evident that any theory of the Atone- 
ment which holds that because Christ has died 
every one will be saved, irrespective of the way 
they live here, is a contradiction in terms ; for 
from the very nature of this salvation those 
who are in full possession of their faculties must 
choose it before they can become partakers 
of it. 

Let not, therefore, those who are out of 



22 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



Christ when they see the emblems of the body 
and blood of our Lord, think that these have 
no message for them. As plainly as these point 
back " to the place which is called Calvary," 
and declare Divine justice, so plainly do they 
proclaim to the rebellious that unless they take 
advantage of the provisions of grace which 
Christ has wrought out, they must themselves 
bear the full penalty of the law on account of 
their misdeeds. 

One word more before passing from this part 
of the subject. 

If Calvary proclaims Divine justice, does it 
not therefore show us the heinousness of sin ? 
We compute the heinousness of a violation of 
our earthly laws by the penalty enforced. For 
some offences it may be a fine, for others im- 
prisonment, for others death. Because society 
is not perfect the punishment may not be in 
proportion to the crime ; yet that punishment 
is meted out to lawlessness according to the 
views of its enormity entertained at the time 
by society at large. In the same way we can 
tell the heinousness of sin in God's sight. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 23 



Moreover, as He is absolutely perfect His esti- 
mation of sin and its penalty must also neces- 
sarily be perfect. Now when He wished to 
save us, how much did it cost Him to satisfy 
the demands of His own law which we had 
broken, so that salvation might be offered 
freely to all ? Nothing short of the humiliation 
and death of the Second Person of the God- 
head. Enormous, then, must sin be when Di- 
vine justice, that never errs, demanded such a 
price. 

There is an unhealthy sentiment abroad con- 
cerning sin. Persons style it as simply a " mis- 
fortune," an " idiosyncrasy," a "weakness," a 
" foible." In many quarters, society winks at 
it, unless the offender loses his reputation ; and 
then if he is cast aside it is not because of his 
vileness, but because that vileness has become 
generally known. With them character is noth- 
ing: reputation is everything. A recent writer* 
in the Chicago Herald says : " A lady said to 
me once, 1 1 demand good manners before good 
morals from my acquaintances. Bad morals 
* Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 



24 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



can be hidden ; bad manners cannot.' " I sup- 
pose this statement expresses the feelings of 
many. With them it is more heinous to violate 
the rules of etiquette than to sin against God. 
Polish is more sought after than principle. 
And so there are courted in society those who, 
while they are so polite as almost to bow to 
their own shadow, are so vile that it would 
be becoming in them to cry, " Unclean I un- 
clean 1 We are thus reminded of the state of 
society in France just previous to the great 
Revolution, when it was taken as a maxim that 
"manners are morals" God have mercy on 
society when sin is lightly thought of, when in 
its estimation " vice itself loses half its evils 
by losing all its grossness."f 

Come with me, my brethren, " to the place 
which is called Calvary," if you wish to esti- 
mate the heinousness of sin. There the Son of 
God is hanging upon the Cross. Earth spurns 
Him ; Heaven hides its face from Him. Why 
is He there? Because of our sins, He washed 
to save us; but Justice said, Before you can do 
* Lev. xiiL 45. t Edmund Burke. 



At the Place which is called Calvary, 25 



so, yourself must suffer. Here, then, we get a 
true estimate of sin's enormity. Nothing short 
of the sacrifice of God Incarnate can atone for 
it. Do we think of that when we engage in 
overt acts of transgression, or cherish wrong 
feelings, or live in utter forgetfulness of Gods 
claims upon us ? Nothing short of the sacrifice 
of God Incarnate ! Oh, that I could send these 
words ringing from pole to pole until earth re- 
alized what a heinous thing sin is. How forci- 
bly this truth should be impressed upon us 
when we see the emblems of the body and 
blood of our Lord. 

III. But we must not leave this subject with- 
out noting that Calvary proclaims the offer of 
salvation to all. Some of our good church 
fathers held a different view. They taught that 
Christ only died for a part of the race. Which 
of these views is correct ? This is a vital ques- 
tion. Can we stand up and say indiscriminately 
to sinners, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters,"* " and whosoever will, let 
him take the water of life freely " ? f Or shall 
* Isaiah lv. 1. t Rev. xxii. t. 



26 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 



we say, Ho, every one that is elect, come ye to 
the waters? When a sinner comes to us bur- 
dened with a sense of his guilt, shall we quote 
from our Confession* — " By the decree of God, 
for the manifestation of His glory, some men 
and angels are predestinated unto eternal life, 
and others foreordained to everlasting death. 
These angels and men, thus predestinated and 
foreordained, are particularly and unchange- 
ably designed, and their number is so certain 
and definite that it cannot be either increased 
or diminished," — and then say to him : My dear 
brother, if you are one of the elect God will 
save you ; and if you are not, you need not 
bother your head about it, for it will not make 
the slightest difference? Or shall we say to 
him in the words of Paul to the Philippian 
jailor, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
thou shalt be saved " ? f When we appear at the 
judgment-seat is Christ the Judge going to 
say : I died for you ; therefore you may go to 

* I borrow this thought from the New York Evan- 
gelist. 

t Acts xvi. 31. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 27 



the right. I did not die for you ; therefore you 
must go to the left? 

If Christ only died for a certain number, and 
if from all eternity these persons are fore- 
ordained to everlasting life and the rest of 
mankind to everlasting death, regardless of 
their own choice, man is not a responsible 
creature. He is simply a machine in the hands 
of his Maker. And this the Confession teaches. 
For although in one place it denies that " vio- 
lence " is " offered to the will of the creatures," 
yet in the very next sentence it as plainly as- 
serts it. It says, " Although God knows what- 
soever may or can come to pass, upon all sup- 
posed conditions, yet hath He not decreed any- 
thing because He foresaw it as future, or as 
that which would come to pass, upon such 
conditions." 

Does it follow, then, if God condemns the 
sinner who has thus been reprobated from all 
eternity, that that condemnation redounds to 
His glory, or as the Confession says, " To the 
praise of His glorious justice "? I fail to see it. 
For the Bible teaches us that sinners will be 



28 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



condemned on the charge of wilful disloyalty, 
not because they were reprobated. Now, if 
God condemns them on a false charge it is 
surely unjust as well as untruthful. This is a fact 
that certain gentlemen seem to forget. They 
argue that God can in justice foreordain sin- 
ners to everlasting death. Grant it. But would 
it be just to condemn them for refusing to ac- 
cept salvation when He had foreordained that 
they should not accept it ? I would ask these 
gentlemen to ponder over the words, " God is 
not a man, that He should lie." Furthermore, 
if the condemned one before His bar should 
say, " I am not responsible for my condition ; 
I am but fulfilling my Creator's will concerning 
me ; as Christ did not die for me, and as it was 
never intended that I should be saved, I do 
not see how I can be held accountable," what 
would " the Judge of all the earth " reply? 

And what is the logical sequence of the doc- 
trine of the Atonement and Election as they 
are stated in the Confession? I heard it ex- 
pressed a few years ago in the village of New- 
castle, N. B. I was in the waiting-room of the 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 29 



? railway station. From the trainmen's room I 
heard a theological discussion. And one man, 
not in the tone of bravado, but of conviction, 
said : " Well, my opinion is that it amounts to 
this — if we are to be saved, we will be saved ; 
if we are to be lost, we will be lost." Perhaps 
you say : He was uneducated, and could not draw 
fine distinctions. I reply: He went straight to 
the logical sequence without being hindered by 
fine distinctions. But education also gives the 
same verdict. Two Presbyterian ministers of 
unquestioned standing in the church, and of 
many years' experience, have admitted to me 
that they did not see much use in preaching 
the Gospel. " God has His elect," they said. 
" Those that are to be saved will be saved ; 
and those that are to be lost will he lost." And 
in making this declaration these gentlemen 
were true to their creed. 

But what does the Word of God say ? " God 
so loved the world, that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him 
should not perish, but have eternal life." •* "And 
* John iii. 16. 



30 At the Place which is called Calvary, 



He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for 
ours only, but also for the whole world."* 
" And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And 
he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he 
that is athirst, let him come : he that will, let 
him take the water of life freely. "f What do 
these passages teach us? That Christ died for 
the whole world ; and now all who will, may be 
saved. They but express in other words the 
old message which God sent to the house of 
Israel by the Prophet Ezekiel, " Say unto them, 
As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleas- 
ure in the death of the wicked ; but that the 
wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, 
turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye 
die?"t 

And do we not come to the same conclusion 
ourselves when we rightly consider the holiness 
of God ? But what do we mean by Divine holi- 
ness? Simply that God is unswerving in His 
justice, and in His hatred of sin ? Or does it 
necessarily include anything else? I do not 

* i John ii. 2. t Rev. xxii. 17. 

\ Ezekiel xxxiii. 11. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 31 



see how it is possible for any being to be abso- 
lutely holy without possessing all the finer feel- 
ings in their perfection. " Divine holiness," 
says Henry B. Smith, " excludes all moral im- 
perfection and all moral impurity." Or, in 
other words, it means moral perfection. But 
how can there be moral perfection without love 
and mercy ? While these indeed in a perfect 
being must necessarily square with his justice, 
they must also of necessity be there in all their 
fulness. And so the Bible says, " God is love." 
Not merely that God loves, but " God is love."* 
Love is in His very nature ; it is wrapped up in, 
and necessary to, His moral perfection. Love 
and mercy are of necessity just as much the 
attributes of a holy God as justice. Suppose 
that Christ had only been just, would we have 
regarded Him as a perfect, a holy Being? We 
would not. 

In short, holiness, instead of being a single 
attribute of God, is the sum of all His moral 
attributes. So that the answer in the West- 
minster Shorter Catechism to the question, 
* 1 Tohn iv. 8. 



32 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



" What is God ? " which reads, " God is a Spirit, 
infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in His being, 
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and 
truth/' should stop at " holiness," for what fol- 
lows is included in that. 

But Prof. Shedd says, " We can say that 
God may be merciful or not, as He pleases ; 
but we cannot say God may be just or not, as 
He pleases." But I hold that while God is not 
under any obligation to us, yet from His very 
nature, to be true to Himself, He must be 
merciful where such does not conflict with His 
justice. 

And does not our own experience teach us 
that love and mercy, as well as justice, go to 
make up holiness? For the nearer we attain 
to perfection, are not these developed within 
us as much as the other? Thus we are led to 
contemplate the infinitude of the love and 
mercy of God who is infinite in holiness. And 
so while we look at man's unworthiness we are 
amazed, we are filled with awe, at the mani- 
festation of Divine love in Christ ; yet when we 
contemplate the nature of God we feel that 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 33 



such love is only what might be expected in 
One so holy. What richness does this thought 
give to the Divine proclamation, "Jehovah, 
Jehovah, a God full of compassion and gracious, 
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and 
truth ; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
iniquity and transgression and sin : and that 
will by no means clear the guilty." * 

And now, my dear brethren, that Jesus 
Christ, by honoring the law on our behalf, has 
satisfied the demands of justice, could we not 
argue from the very nature of God, from His 
holiness, even if the Bible had not so plainly 
proclaimed it, that He would offer salvation to 
all, and that whosoever will may take the water 
of life freely ? 

My brethren, I believe in such a thing as 
Election ; but I do not believe in such an elec- 
tion as would take away our individual respon- 
sibility. When God condemns a man, it is be- 
cause that man is to blame — it is because he 
did not live up to the light which he had. 
" This is the condemnation, that light is come 
* Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. 



34 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



into the world, and men loved darkness rather 
than light, because their deeds were evil." * 

I believe in a system of theology that mag- 
nifies the sovereignty of God ; but not at the 
expense of His moral attributes, nor of man's 
accountability. 

I believe that those who reject the light 
which they have will be lost. 

I believe that it is only through the merits 
of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God, that any 
one can be saved. 

But I hold that our Church should have no 
room in its Standards for any theory of the 
Atonement or of Election that does not coin- 
cide with the 1 6th verse of the 3d chapter of St. 
John's Gospel : " For God so loved the world, 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, 
but have eternal life." Oh, I bless God for this 
verse. It is a perfect system of theology boiled 
down. Salvation offered to all freely. There- 
fore, this morning, as " an ambassador on be- 
half of Christ," I proclaim to every unsaved 
* John iii. 19. 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 



35 



person present that God loves you and wishes 
to save you. You may be as poor as Lazarus ; 
you may have hated the Church with all the 
fiery and zealous hatred of a Saul ; you may 
have been of the character of Manasseh, who 
seduced his subjects " to do that which is evil 
more than did the nations, whom the Lord de- 
stroyed before the children of Israel,"* ay, you 
may even have been as great a hypocrite as 
Judas Iscariot, who betrayed his Master with a 
kiss. But if through Divine grace you sur- 
render yourself to God, He will not only free 
you from the penalty of the broken law, and 
when you die, take you to Heaven ; but, what 
is infinitely better, He will free you from the 
power and defilement of sin, and give you a 
love for holiness, thus fitting you to enjoy 
Heaven. 

" God so loved the world, that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
on Him should not perish, but have eternal 
life." Let us carry these words away with us. 
It is the message which the emblems of the 
* 2 Kings xxi. 9. 



36 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



body and blood of our Lord peal out in lov- 
ing tones to the sinner. It is the message 
which we behold in awful, grand realization, 
when we " come to the place which is called 
Calvary." 



II. 



JESUS OUR FRIEND. 

"He that maketh many friends doeth it to his own 
destruction : but there is a friend that sticketh 
closer than a brother." — Proverbs xviii. 24 (Rev. 
Version). 

" He that maketh many friends doeth it to his 
own destruction," says Solomon. He refers to 
the " hail fellow, well met." To the man whose 
friendship is easily won. Who is attracted by 
pleasant manners more than by noble virtues. 
Such an one with a generous, open heart, often 
meets those who, while he is prosperous, pro- 
fess strong friendship for him. But instead of 
being true friends, too many of them but tend 
to draw him down. They know how to borrow 
money of him ; they get him to endorse notes, 
and too often leave him to meet these when 
they mature. They entice him from the path 
of true manliness, frequently even into drunken- 

(37) 



38 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



ness and immorality. They corrupt his morals 
and they prey upon his purse. And too often 
they are the very first to push him when they 
see him going down hill. Truly a man that 
maketh many such friends doeth it to his own 
destruction. 

But friendship has a brighter, a better side. 
So in contrast to these many false friends Solo- 
mon places the true — " but there is a friend that 
sticketh closer than a brother." 

The word "friend" in this latter part of the 
verse is not the same word in the original He- 
brew as "friends " in the first part. Here it has 
a stronger meaning. It is from the verb mean- 
ing "to love." "There is a loving one that 
sticketh closer than a brother," would be a more 
exact rendering. 

" There is a loving one that sticketh closer 
than a brother." I wonder if Solomon had ref- 
erence to any particular person when he wrote 
this ? Amidst all the glitter of court life, and 
the falseness of many courtiers, I wonder if his 
mind turned to some one whose love he could 
not doubt, and whose friendship, nurtured by 



Jesus our Friend. 



39 



that love, was stronger than life itself? I won- 
der, too, if his thoughts did not turn to that 
best of all his friends, the One who had taken 
his father David from tending the sheep to 
make him the leading general in Israel, so that 
he received more honor than even the King 
himself ; the women, in long procession, sing- 
ing, " Saul has slain his thousands, and David 
his ten thousands." * That Friend who after- 
ward made his father king, blessing him with 
all convenant blessings ; and upon his death 
gave the throne to Solomon himself, and made 
him the centre of an admiring world. Oh, 
surely Solomon's heart must have been very 
hard, very ungrateful, if when he penned these 
words, " There is a friend that sticketh closer 
than a brother," his thoughts did not soar 
above earthly things, and fix themselves upon 
Jehovah, his father's God and his God. 

" There is a friend that sticketh closer than a 
brother." As we read these words our minds 
turn away from the falseness and chill of the 
world to some loved one — a mother, a sister, a 
* i Samuel xviii. 7. 



40 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



friend. We feel that we could stake our lives 
on that loved one's fidelity. But above all, our 
thoughts rise to that dear One who loved us so 
much that He died for us — to Jesus, the best 
of all friends, God manifest in the flesh. It is 
about Him that I wish to speak this morning. 

I note, first, that Jesus is a royal friend. 
Would we not feel ourselves very much flat- 
tered if we had as a friend some great earthly 
monarch? Our children and grandchildren 
would speak about it with pride long after 
we had gone. But earthly rulers, no matter 
how great, are as nothing when compared with 
our Royal Friend. For they but rule for a 
short time, while it is His will to permit, over 
a comparatively small district, and are liable to 
all the troubles to which flesh is heir ; but He 
is from everlasting to everlasting, the King of 
kings and Lord of lords, the Creator and Gov- 
ernor of the universe. Jesus is truly a royal 
friend. 

And as He is royal, so He wields all the 
power that belongs to His position. He who 
had as a friend Alexander, Caesar, or Cromwell, 



Jesus our Friend. 



41 



had the protection of a mighty arm. But these 
were mortal, subject to all the vicissitudes of 
our race, and finally they themselves were over- 
come by that mighty giant, Death. But our 
Friend, King Jesus, is the Almighty One. He 
is not limited by any power outside of Himself. 
All the forces of nature, all powers, angelic and 
human, are subject to His control. " He doeth 
according to His will in the army of heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of the earth : and 
none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, 
What doest Thou ? " * 

Now consider the great privilege of having 
such an One as a friend. And not merely a 
friend as that word is often understood, but a 
companion who yearns over us with all the 
warmth and the depths of His infinite love. 
For we have our burdens which are too heavy 
for us. Some of our earthly friends would 
gladly bear a share of them; but very often 
they cannot. And even they themselves, while 
they would relieve us, groan under the weight 
of their own troubles. But our Friend, King 
* Daniel iv. 35. 



42 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



Jesus, the Almighty One, is able to bear the 
troubles of the world ; and His heart is so full 
of love and sympathy, that He wishes to do it. 
No matter how slight the trouble may be, it is 
not too small for His sympathy ; no matter 
how great, it is not too heavy for His shoulder. 
Is it a burden of sin under which we groan ? 
He can remove it ; and give us instead, " the 
peace of God, which passeth all understand- 
ing," * which the world can neither give nor 
take away. Are we weighed down with be- 
reavement ? He can bless it to our souls, and 
enable us to say, " Blessed be the name of the 
Lord." Is there any other trouble? Is there 
a combination of troubles ? He who has King 
Jesus for his friend can cast his burden upon 
Him, and He will sustain him, for " He shall 
never suffer the righteous to be moved." f Do 
we fear the Tempter? Do we dread those 
sweeping attacks upon our souls ? King Je- 
sus has conquered the Prince of the powers 
of darkness ; and now through Him we can 
come off "more than conquerors." % Do we 
* Phil. iv. 7. t Ps. lv. 22. \ Rom. viii. 37. 



Jesus our Friend. 



43 



fear Death, that grim King of Terrors ? King 
Jesus has grappled with him, subdued him, 
and forced him into His service ; and now, to 
the Christian, he is but the messenger of peace 
that calls the soul to Heaven. Do we shiver as 
we think of the grave? King Jesus has lain in 
it, and has taken away its chill, and has made a 
bed of peaceful rest until the bright resurrec- 
tion morning. And now the child of God can 
sing, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, 
where is thy victory ? " "Thanks be to God, 
which giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ."* Do we fear the Judgment? 
His power extends even there. He will be 
the judge ; and He will remember in mercy all 
those who put their trust in Him. Oh, He is a 
kingly friend. No other royalty like His roy- 
alty! No other power like His power ! No other 
friendship like His friendship ! What should 
alarm us if we have Him with us? We have no 
foe to meet but what He has already met and 
conquered. No power in earth or in hell can 
harm us if we are the friends of Jesus the King. 
* i Cor. xv. 55, 57. 



44 At the Place which is called Calvary. 

I note further that Jesus is an old, tried 
friend. 

Other things being equal, we have more con- 
fidence in our old friends. Others came, and 
they went ; but these have remained true to us. 
When we are in trouble, and want advice, we 
generally prefer to go to some old friend. We 
are sure of his sympathy. We can open our 
hearts to him better than we can to others. We 
feel that what we say to him is just as safe in his 
keeping as in our own. When we are tired 
with work, and want to have a half-hour's pleas- 
ant chat, it is an old friend that we again seek 
out. Somehow we are more at home chatting 
with him than with most persons. We feel that 
he is glad to see us ; and that he is not wishing 
in his heart that we would stop troubling him, 
and go away. We value our old friends. When 
Jesus calls one of them to Himself we feel that 
there is one tie less binding us to earth, and 
one more drawing us to Heaven. Oh, bless 
God for old friends. Bless God for the friend- 
ship of your faithful partner in life, who has 
always stood true to you, no matter who for- 



Jesus our Friend. 



45 



sook you or what the trouble was. Let us bless 
God for father and mother, whose friendship is 
as old as our existence, who watched over us in 
our younger years, who tended us when we were 
sick, who worked for us, and deprived them- 
selves of a thousand things that we might be 
benefited. Yes, let us bless God for all old 
friends. 

But I point you to One, this morning, whose 
friendship is older than any earthly friendships. 
Before we were born, He was our friend ; ay, 
even before the foundation of the world. For, 
when the fall of man was foreseen, and Justice 
demanded that the penalty should be enforced, 
He stood forth as our friend ; He said, " Lay 
the guilt upon me." You can value the friend- 
ship that has lasted for five years, ten, twenty, 
thirty years ; and other things being equal, you 
value it in proportion to its age. But what 
think you of a friendship a thousand years old, 
two thousand, five thousand years, ay, that goes 
away back into eternity? Surely a friendship 
like that is worth the having ; surely it is worthy 
of the name. Jesus, then, is an old friend. 



46 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



But, as we have already said, He is also tried. 
You get into financial difficulties. Then, if 
while many give you the cold shoulder through 
fear that you should ask them for assistance, 
one stood by you, and, because he loved you, 
helped you to get on your feet again, and 
cheered you on in the path of uprightness, you 
would consider that person a tried friend. If 
any of us should so forget ourself as to leave 
the ways of godliness and virtue ; and while 
others sneered at the mention of our name, a 
loved one remained true, and prayed for and 
labored with us, we would call that one a tried 
friend. But suppose that for our sakes Queen 
Victoria should give up her throne and her 
wealth, and should endure hardships and pri- 
vations. Oh, what a great friend we would 
consider her. Just think of it. A queen, the 
ruler of an empire that engirdles the globe, the 
greatest empire the world has ever seen or 
probably ever will see, suffering thus for 
another. What matter for wonder it would be. 
Newspapers throughout the world would be 
full of eulogies ; history would hand down her 



Jesus our Friend. 



47 



name in emblazoned letters. But Jesus proved 
His friendship, His love, for us in a more strik- 
ing way than even that. He was not only a 
King ; but He was " King of kings and Lord 
of lords." He was not only Ruler of this world, 
but also of the myriads of worlds that float 
around us in space. Heaven was His throne 
So far is He above earthly rulers that even 
Queen Victoria and the Emperors William 
Francis Joseph, and Alexander, and the Pres- 
idents of France and these United States of 
America, have to do Him homage, not as 
under-sovereigns, but as unworthy sinners, no 
more regarded by Him, than you, or I, so far is 
He above them. So far are the pleasures of 
Heaven — the pleasures which were His — above 
those of this world, that, as Moore, the Irish 
poet, so beautifully says : 

,J Go, wing thy flight from star to star, 
From world to luminous world as far 
As the universe spreads its flaming wall ; 
Take all the pleasures of all the spheres, 
And multiply each through endless years, 
One minute of Heaven is worth them all." 

Yet so great was His friendship, His love, 



48 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



toward us, for our sakes He gave up for years 
His throne, His wealth, His pleasure. For our 
sakes He became poor. Though the Creator of 
all things, He had not where to lay His head. 
For our sakes He suffered Himself to be de- 
spised, spitefully entreated, and spit upon, the 
object of the bitterest malignity of men and 
of devils. He endured most indescribable 
agony ; He died for us ; died that we might be 
saved ; died willingly, because He loved us. 
Oh, did He not thus give us a strong proof of 
His friendship? Do you want that proof made 
stronger? Then ask yourself, What was our 
relation to Him then? Were we His friends? 
Oh, no ! We were in open rebellion against 
Him. We were traitors. We were trampling 
upon His law and His love. We were as the 
viper that stings to death the breast that warms 
it to life. " While we were enemies, we were 
reconciled to God through the death of His 
Son."* Jesus is an old, tried friend. 

I note, again, the constancy of Jesus' friend- 
ship. 

* Rom. v. 10. 



Jesus our Friend. 



49 



Much of earthly friendship is very fickle. 
To-day we regard a person as a friend ; to-mor- 
row he may be as cold as a stranger, he may 
be our enemy. His friendship was sincere while 
it lasted ; but he became alienated from us, 
perhaps by something we did, or through some 
misunderstanding or false report. Again, a per- 
son's friendship for another may gradually be- 
come weaker and weaker, until it altogether be- 
comes extinct. There is a tinge of sadness in 
this thought, for it forces this other thought 
upon us that some of those we love, and who 
love us, may cease their intimacy, may forget 
us, may hate us. Oh, much of earthly friend- 
ship is very fickle. And, as we think on this 
with pain, the question arises : What about the 
friendship of Jesus ? Will it ever grow cold to 
those that love Him ? And the answer comes 
from the throne of the Almighty, " I will in no 
wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake 
thee." * " Yea, I have loved thee with an 
everlasting love ; therefore, with loving-kind- 
ness have I drawn thee." % " Can a woman for- 
* Heb. xiii. 5. t Jer. xxxi. 3. 



50 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



get her sucking child that she should not have 
compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, 
these may forget, yet will I not forget thee."* 
Jesus is not only a royal, old, tried friend, but 
He is an everlasting friend to those who have 
accepted Him. He knew all about us when 
He entered into the friendly compact with us, 
and therefore our imperfections, our eccentric- 
ities, are not going to dampen His feelings to- 
ward us. No misunderstanding can alienate 
Him. Oh, what a wonder it is that we do not 
more admire the constancy of His friendship. 
We are not so slow to appreciate constancy in 
earthly friendship. We look with veneration 
on that aged couple, who, having set out to- 
gether early in life, have been faithful to each 
other under all circumstances. And now as 
their sun is declining in the golden West, 
though their step is feeble, and the face wrin- 
kled, and their shoulders are bent with age, 
they are just as young and attractive to each 
other as in the days of the long ago ; and lov- 
ingly, hand in hand, they " totter doon " the 
* Isaiah xlix. 15. 



Jesus our Friend. 



51 



hill, to " sleep thegither at the foot," so that 
together they may rise when the trump of the 
Archangel sounds, and hand in hand enter into 
the regions of eternal bliss. We never tire read- 
ing of the constancy of the friendship between 
David and Jonathan ; and we are ready to min- 
gle our tears with the former as, forgetful of the 
throne upon which he was so soon to sit, he wails 
for his friend. But as the moon and stars pale 
in the presence of the sun, so the most striking 
cases of earthly friendship, tender and grand 
and soul-inspiring as they may be, fade into ob- 
scurity as we contemplate the friendship of Je- 
sus. Were I but able to realize it myself and 
to describe it to you, we would have hearts of 
flint if it did not move us to tears. But it is so 
great that no human being, in this world at 
least, can comprehend it. When we are able to 
fathom the sinfulness and degradation of this lost 
world, and the hatred which Christ bore against 
sin ; when we can compute what it cost Him to 
give up the glories of Heaven, and suffer as He 
did for us ; when we can sum up the number of 
times we sin against Him, day by day trampling 



52 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



His law and His love under foot, and bringing 
reproach and contempt upon His cause ; when 
we can tell how faithfully, amid all our un wor- 
thiness, He pleads our cause as our " Advocate 
with the Father," then, and not till then, can we 
realize to any comparatively great extent what 
is meant by the constancy of Jesus friendship. 

And should not this faithfulness on His part 
be a matter of great comfort to us ? For there 
are times in the history of perhaps many of us 
when human friendship seems to be but a 
mockery. The clouds gather over and around 
us, and the storm bursts upon us in all its fury. 
And as we struggle for life the world seems 
coldly indifferent, and no one offers us so much 
as a mite of sympathy. Everybody seems to 
pass by on the other side, and some pass by 
with a sneer. There are times, too, when dear 
ones are taken away, and some we loved and 
trusted prove false, and everything seems dark, 
and we feel that we are alone. Now, what a 
comfort it is on such occasions to know that 
Jesus never fails those who love Him. Other 
friends may forsake, or distance may sep- 



Jesus our Friend. 



53 



t arate them from us, or death may snatch them 
away. Or while they are so friendly that did 
they but know our troubles they would hasten 
to help us, they may be entirely ignorant of 
them. But Jesus is a friend that knows all our 
circumstances better than we do ourselves. He 
is a friend that never forsakes His friends ; who 
stands by them in adversity as well as in pros- 
perity; who cannot be separated from them. 
For while distance may separate our loved ones 
from us, Jesus is, in the highest and best sense 
of the word, an ever-present God. While death 
may take away our loved ones it cannot sepa- 
rate Jesus from His friends, but rather brings 
them into His immediate presence, where they 
shall see Him, face to face, in all His noonday 
glory. " For I am persuaded, that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." * 

I also note the intimacy of Christ's relations 
* Rom. viii. 38, 39. 



54 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



with His people. He says : " Henceforth I 
call you not servants ; for the servant knoweth 
not what his lord doeth : but I have called 
you friends." * " If a man love me, he will 
keep my words ; and my Father will love him, 
and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him." f " If any man hear my voice, 
and open the door, I will come in to him, and 
will sup with him, and he with me." % Jesus 
is pre-eminently the " friend that sticketh closer 
than a brother." He is a bosom friend, a com- 
panion. And oh, how delightful He is ! How 
grandly noble ! Those who know Him the 
most, love Him the best ; those who know Him 
not, know not what it is to be truly happy. And 
because He is so intimately connected with His 
people they can tell Him everything. We can- 
not do this with any one else. Little things 
happen which we like to keep from our earthly 
friends. There is always some ' skeleton in the 
closet.' But there is something so kind, so in- 
viting about Jesus that the Christian is led to 
tell Him everything — to unburden himself of 
*John xv. 15. t John xiv. 23. \ Rev. iii. 20. 



Jesus our Friend. 



55 



all his troubles on the bosom of his Lord. 
There is no 1 skeleton in the closet ' when we 
are with Him. And never is He indifferent to 
our wants, but always ready to sympathize and 
to help. If we are perplexed about our path 
of duty He is ready to lead us, so intimate is 
He with His people. " If any of you lack wis- 
dom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men 
liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be 
given him." * Are we filled with joy ? How 
pleasant it is to share it with some loved one, 
and by sharing, multiply it. The mutual re- 
lations between Jesus and His friends are 
so tender and deep that we can tell Him 
everything. And He who drinks of the joys 
of Heaven, ay, who is the Author of joy itself, 
condescends to partake of ours and to share 
His with us. " If any man hear my voice, and 
open the door, I will come in to him, and will 
sup with him, and he with me." f But let us 
remember that our intimacy with Him must not 
be that of undue familiarity, but that which 
is begotten of adoration, simple trust, and love. 
* James i. 5. t Rev. iii. 20. 



$6 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



Jesus, the a friend that sticketh closer than 
a brother," pleads, unsaved sinner, for your 
friendship. Besides being of all friends_ the 
dearest and the best, He is the one that you 
need the most. He of all others is the one 
whose friendship you cannot afford to do with- 
out. The time will come, if it has not already 
arrived, when you will be sorely tempted, and 
you will need His power then. You will be 
bereaved and sorrowful ; and you will need His 
sympathy then. You may be sick ; and you will 
need His promises then. You will have to die, and 
you will need Him, oh so much, then. And after 
death is the judgment ; and how are you going 
to do without Him then? But death may 
come at any time. You may never see another 
day. Therefore you need Him now — this mo- 
ment. And you may have Him now. This 
moment He stands pleading with you. " Be- 
hold I stand at the door, and knock : if any 
man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he 
with me." * 

* Rev. iii. 20. 



IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER? 
" Is not this the carpenter? " — Mark vi. 3. 

PERHAPS the reader, without any special 
study of the text, may find in the fact that Je- 
sus had been a carpenter, and was the reputed 
son of a carpenter, the cause of His rejection 
by the people of Nazareth. But such could 
not have been the case. 

The Jewish rabbi was not permitted to make 
any charge for his official duties, though in- 
deed he might accept a moderate sum, " not as 
payment, but only to make good the loss of 
time which he might have used for his profit." 

Now, while some of them became wealthy 
t by marrying into rich families or by marrying 
their daughters to persons of wealth, — for it was 
considered a great thing to marry a rabbi or 
the daughter of a rabbi, — yet each of them was 

(57) 



58 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



required to learn a trade by which to support 
himself. It was held in the time of Jesus that 
study and labor should go hand in hand. " For 
this reason," says Delitzsch, ' famous teachers 
not only carried the chairs on their own shoul- 
ders to the college, because all labor calling for 
physical exertion was regarded an honor, but a 
certain Phinehas was cutting stones, when the 
stone-mason was informed of his election to the 
high-priesthood. Rab Joseph turned the mill ; 
Rab Shesheth dragged beams, highly praising 
this diaphoretic labor, and more than a hun- 
dred rabbis, whom the Talmud mentions, were 
both artisans and bore artisan names." This 
same writer also says, " Another famous teacher 
who lived in voluntary poverty was /itdah bar 
Illai, a cooper by trade, who dwelt in the town 
of Usha, in Galilee, and who carried to the 
college the cask, seated on which he used to 
lecture." Even Hillel, who is popularly re- 
garded as the greatest of the rabbis, " sup- 
ported himself by the labor of his hands." 
And there is an old saying that " when a man 
teaches his son no trade, it is as if he brought 



Is not this the Carpenter? 



59 



him up to highway robbery." So you see, 
therefore, that Christ would not be rejected by 
His fellow-townsmen because He had worked 
at the carpenter's bench, or that Joseph, His 
reputed father, was also a carpenter. The 
words, " Is not this the carpenter ? " spoken by 
some, and " Is not this the carpenter's son ? " * 
spoken by others, was not said in derision, as 
if these were things to lower a man ; but rather 
to indicate their acquaintance with him. Just 
as we would say, Why, we know this person. 
He is the village doctor, or postmaster, or car- 
penter. They might, indeed, have meant to 
infer that He had never been ordained as a 
rabbi. But the chief thought which they 
wished to express was that they knew Him. 
Now Christ was working great miracles, and was 
addressing the people in the language of author- 
ity. For you will notice that He did not speak 
as did the Jewish teachers, basing His instruc- 
tion on previous statements of other rabbis, 
saying, for instance, Rabbi Shemaiah says so and 
so, and Rabbi Hillel says so and so, and Rabbi 
♦Mat. xiii. 55. 



6o At the Place which is called Calvary. 



Somebodyelse says so and so. But His lan- 
guage is, " I say unto you." " He taught them as 
one having authority, and not as their scribes/''* 
Now these things astonished His townsmen, 
and caused them to question among themselves. 
They acknowledged His great wisdom and 
power; but they seemed to think that He was 
working through the powers of darkness. 
" Why, we know this man," I imagine I hear 
them say. " Is not this the carpenter ? " " Is 
not this the carpenter's son ? " To have one 
who had been brought up among themselves 
manifest such greatness all at once was more 
than they could stand. The prophet had no 
honor in his own country. 

Our text supplies us with the only informa- 
tion which the New Testament gives regarding 
the occupation which Christ followed before He 
entered on the active work of His ministry. 
But the statement itself is evidently a correct 
one. It was made by His fellow-townsmen as 
a matter of fact on which they had no doubt ; 
for though it is in the shape of a question the 
*Mat. vii. 29. 



Is not this the Carpenter f 



61 



form of the Greek sentence expects " Yes " for 
an answer, so that it is really a strong affirma- 
tion. It could not have been a lie which had 
been gotten up with the purpose of injuring 
Him, for first, as we have already seen, " all 
labor calling for physical exertion was regarded 
an honor" among the Jews; and second, the 
statement was made, not after deliberation on 
the matter, but spontaneously, as one would 
speak of a thing with which he was familiar ; 
and this, too, in the place where Christ had been 
brought up, and where a lie of such a nature 
would not have been believed. Besides, it is 
recorded by two of our Lord's own friends, one 
of whom was an Apostle, without any contra- 
diction. And is it not in accordance with our 
feelings to think that before Christ entered on 
the active duties of the ministry He worked 
at something? — for, first, we cannot conceive of 
Him growing up in idleness; and second, it 
was becoming that He who came to earth to 
fit Himself to be our High-Priest, as well as to 
die for us, should know by experience what 
toil is. Now, as it was customary for the son 



62 At the Place which is called Calvary, 



to follow the trade of the father, if Joseph was 
a carpenter, Christ would naturally work at the 
same trade. 

Does it jar your feelings to think that Christ 
worked at a carpenter's bench ? Celsus, a Greek 
philosopher of the second century, seems to 
have sneered at this, for Origen, in replying to 
him, says that Mark vi. 3 should read like 
Matthew xiii. 55, " Is not this the carpenter's 
son ? " But text criticism goes against Origen, 
and upholds the present rendering, " Is not this 
the carpenter ? " 

I bless God for these words. Though ut- 
tered by His enemies as they rejected Him, they 
have had, and will continue to have, a blessed 
influence on the world. Let us learn some of 
the many lessons that they would teach us. 

One lesson that is impressed upon us is : It is 
not the position, but the character, that makes 
the man. There are those who despise in their 
hearts everything in the shape of manual labor. 
There are mothers who would be horrified at 
the thought of their dear boys learning a trade 
or working a farm. They must be professional 



Is not this the Carpenter ? 



63 



men, or in some other nicey-nice way support 
themselves. Thus they have spoiled many a 
good farmer and mechanic. There are young 
men who would consider that it would be low- 
ering to go into a blacksmith-shop to shoe 
horses, or to work at a carpenter's bench. 
There are those, too, who would not care to 
associate with one who earned his living 
M in the sweat of his face," no matter how 
noble and intelligent he might be, while they 
would be elated at the thought of being 
seen in the company of the lordly libertine, 
or with the man of wealth, even though that 
wealth had been obtained by cruelty and 
fraud. If such persons had lived when our 
text was spoken they would have considered it 
a greater honor to be the companion of Gov- 
ernor Pilate than of the Incarnate God. Now, 
my dear friends, Jesus has so honored labor 
that the world should be more than ever im- 
pressed with the fact that it is not the position 
that makes the man, but the character. All 
honest work is honorable, and all dishonest 
work is dishonorable. Rather be an honest 



64 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



bootblack than a scheming, dishonest million- 
aire. Show me the man that has the true ring 
about him, the man of good common sense, of 
honesty, purity, and sobriety, with a heart full 
of love to God and humanity, and I will show 
you one who is worthy of our warmest recog- 
nition, irrespective of his dress or position in 
society. I think it was Robert Burns, Scotland's 
favorite bard, who was once taken to task by a 
scion of some lordly house for stopping on the 
street to speak to a roughly-dressed farmer. 
Burns turned to him with the slashing reply, 
* My good sir, for true nobility that man is 
worth you and me, and ten such men any day." 

A man is, not as the world may estimate him, 
but as God sees him. Now, God has given us 
different gifts. He has fitted one for this posi- 
tion and another for that. For you see that if 
all men were to occupy the same position, the 
world would never get along. If every one 
were a merchant, who would do the farming ? 
If all followed the professions, where would be 
our mechanics? So God has fitted some to be 
farmers, others to be mechanics, others to be 



Is not this the Carperiter ? 



65 



merchants, others for the professions, and so 
on. Now, while He does this as a matter of 
economy, He does not say that the one who 
occupies the high position is better than the 
one who occupies the lower. Men may say 
that, but God says that the best man is the one 
who fills his position the best — the one that is 
most faithful to his Lord and Master. And 
thus the Lord will reward us in the other world. 
Then many who have been exalted here, who 
have amassed fortunes, commanded armies, or 
ruled empires, may be rejected, while to many 
who have had but the one talent, and who have 
lived in obscurity, He will say, "Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the 
world." * Thus we see that it is not the posi- 
tion that makes the man, but the character. 

We also see this truth exemplified as we look 
at some of the bright men of our race who 
have worked at manual labor for their living. 
Moses and David were shepherds ; the Prophet 
Elisha was a farmer; Paul was a tent-maker; 
* Mat. xxv. 34. 



66 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



Peter and Andrew and James and John were 
fishermen. Coming down nearer ourselves, we 
find that John Bunyan was a tinker ; the Hon. 
Alex. McKenzie, ex-Premier of Canada, was a 
stone-mason; Hugh Miller, the great Scotch 
geologist, was a common quarry-man ; Elihu 
Burritt, the Christian philanthropist, who could 
read some forty languages, was a blacksmith ; 
Dr. Livingstone, the great explorer, was a fac- 
tory hand ; Michael Faraday was a bookbinder ; 
D. L. Moody and Albert Barnes worked in 
tanneries ; and President Lincoln was a rail- 
splitter. And of Him who appeared in the ful- 
ness of time, who belongs to no particular age, 
and whose character was so grand that it cannot 
be accounted for except on the theory that He 
was divine, it was said, " Is not this the car- 
penter?" 

Let us draw two lessons from this : 
1st. Let us strive by God's help to fill our 
present positions to the utmost of our ability. 
It is laudable for a person to endeavor to rise 
in the world when he has before him as his 
guiding star the glory of God and the good of 



Is not this the Carpenter f 67 



his fellows ; but let us not be ambitious for 
worldly promotion for its own sake. Rather 
let us desire to fill the place in which we can 
render the most service to the cause of God 
and humanity, no matter how obscure that po- 
sition may be. Let us be zealous to do the 
greatest possible amount of good that we can 
while we live here, that the world may be bet- 
ter because we have passed through it. 

2d. Let us not despise any one because of 
his position, if that position be an honest one. 
You cannot tell the quality of a man's goods by 
his sign-board. Many an obscure laborer may 
be filling the place to which God has assigned 
him better than many of those who occupy the 
high positions ; in the sight of God he may be 
accounted their superior ; and in Heaven, grant- 
ing that many of them will get there, he may 
occupy a position relatively as far above them 
as they now do above him. 

Another thought that is impressed upon us 
by the text is that Jesus can sympathize with 
us in our daily troubles. If He had taken upon 
Himself the form of an angel we would have 



68 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



felt that He could not fully sympathize with 
mankind. If He had come as a great king or as a 
wealthy aristocrat, we might have thought that 
He could not enter into the feelings of the 
poorer classes. But when He comes as a poor 
man, when He works at the carpenter's bench, 
we know that He wishes to show us that He has 
no respect of persons, and that He can sympa- 
thize with even the poorest. To me there is a 
great deal of comfort in the thought that for 
years the God-man earned His living " in the 
sweat of His face." When, after a hard day's 
work, or when Saturday night comes, you are so 
fatigued that you can scarcely drag one foot af- 
ter the other, with sore head, sore back, sore 
arms, sore sides, sore from head to foot, how 
pleasant it is to go for sympathy to that dearest 
and best of all our friends ; for having Himself 
been often worn out after a hard day's work, 
He knows just what it is, and is therefore able 
to sympathize with others under similar cir- 
cumstances. This thought comes to me when- 
ever I read the beautiful story recorded in the 
4th chapter of St. Mark's Gospel, from the 35th 



Is not this the Carpenter f 



6 9 



verse. All day Jesus had been working mira- 
cles and teaching the people, so that when the 
evening was come, perhaps to get a little rest 
for His worn-out body, He told His disciples to 
go over to the other side of the lake. And 
now, as their little vessel heads away from the 
shore, I can see Him rise, and, taking a cushion 
that was on board, double it up for a pillow, 
and lay Himself down to rest. He falls asleep. 
But soon there arises a great wind, one of those 
sudden and violent stbrms to which the Lake 
of Gennesaret is subject, and the waves beat 
into the vessel, and the spray, I suppose, dashes 
over Him ; but He is so worn out that He does 
not waken. The storm gets so bad that those 
fishermen who had been used to the lake all 
their lives get afraid, for their boat is filling. 
But He still sleeps on. At last they waken 
Him ; and with the voice of command, He " re- 
buked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, 
be still. And the wind ceased, and there was 
a great calm." Whenever I read this, while I 
see the Omnipotent God, I cannot overlook the 
weary man. And I cannot help thinking that 



70 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



now, as our High-Priest before the throne of 
the Father, He has a brother's feeling for those 
who are fatigued such as He was. This, indeed, 
may appear to some a very slight thing in view 
of our greater troubles. But oh, here is just 
where the beauty of it comes in, that just as 
the loving mother will sympathize with the lit- 
tle troubles of her child, that others do not 
think worth noticing, so Jesus will stoop to 
sympathize with His children in the compara- 
tively little troubles which they otherwise 
would have to bear alone, because they are so 
common. I wish we had a greater realization 
of this blessed truth that the God who cares for 
the sparrows, and who numbers the very hairs of 
our head, does not consider any of our troubles 
too insignificant for His attention. I think 
that many of us have much unnecessary pain 
and worry, because we act on the principle that 
we can only take the heavy, crushing sorrows to 
God. So we carry about the thousand lit- 
tle things that annoy and make life mis- 
erable, when we might have lain them on Jesus, 
and be living in the full sunlight of heavenly 



Is not this the Carpenter ? 



7* 



joy. Do you not know that one of the reasons 
why God permits sorrow to come to His chil- 
dren is that they might thereby, just as the child 
is drawn by its troubles closer to its mother, be 
drawn closer to Him, and get acquainted with 
His great, loving, sympathetic heart ? As there 
is no trouble too heavy for Him to bear, so there 
is not one so small that does not appeal to 
His sympathy. Therefore, my dear Christian 
friends, learn to take all your troubles, great 
and small, to your Lord. Are you worried 
about household matters ? Are things not going 
as smoothly as you would like ? Or perhaps 
the flour-barrel is getting empty, and the clothes 
are beginning to shab, and the shoes are break- 
ing at the side, while the purse has very little in 
it. Perhaps you have to endure unpleasant 
things at your daily work on the farm, or in the 
shop, the store, or the office. Or perhaps 
you are daily beset with fierce temptations. 
Now, while you do your utmost to better your 
condition, do not neglect to tell these things to 
Jesus ; and if He does not take them away, He 
will give you strength to bear them. If you are 



J 2 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



striving by Divine grace to serve God you can 
take all your worries and troubles and tempta- 
tions, whether great or small, whether in pri- 
vate life or social, business, political or religious, 
and cast them on the shoulders of the sympa- 
thizing Omnipotent. I know that He who for 
our sakes was poor and hungry and homeless, 
who was misunderstood and slandered and 
tempted, who suffered physical pain, and whose 
soul was " exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
death," * Jesus, God-Incarnate, has still a fel- 
low-feeling for His people in all their troubles. 
" Jesus wept." f Precious words these ; for 
they are spoken of One whose character is un- 
changeable, " the same yesterday, and to-day, 
and forever." J 

The workingmen of England had reason to 
rejoice that under the last Gladstone adminis- 
tration a workingman was appointed to the po- 
sition of Under-Home Secretary. They thus 
had as their representative, in a high position, 
one who would naturally understand their 
needs, a fellow-workman, one of themselves. 

* Mark xiv. 34. t John xi. 35. { Heb. xiii. 8. 



Is not this the Carpenter f 



73 



But with what unspeakable, greater reason we 
have to rejoice that we have, as our represent- 
ative in Heaven, Him who sits upon the eternal 
throne, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 
the God-man, Jesus, of whom it was said, " Is 
not this the carpenter?" 

" Seeing, then, that we have a great high- 
priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the 
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 
For we have not an high-priest which cannot 
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; 
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin. Let us therefore come boldly 
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
mercy, and find grace to help in time of 
need."* 

Blessed be God for the words, " Is not this the 
carpenter? " 

* Heb. iv. 14-16. 



IV. 



SETTING THE PLUMB-LINE. 

" Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line 
in the midst of my people Israel." — Amos vii. 8. 

You know what a plumb-line is : that it is 
a line with a plummet at the end of it, which 
is used by masons and bricklayers by which to 
run up a wall perpendicularly. In the chapter 
before us the Prophet Amos sees the Lord 
standing upon a wall " made by a plumb-line, 
with a plumb-line in His hand." " Then said 
the Lord, Behold I will set a plumb-line in the 
midst of my people Israel." 

You will notice that the Lord was standing 
upon this wall, not as a builder, for the wall 
was already built, but as an inspector. Thus 
God stands in all ages as the inspector of na- 
tions and of churches, and of individuals. His 
plumb-line is in His hand; and by that He 
will judge us. 

(74) 



Setting the Plumb line. 



75 



What is God's plumb-line ? Before I answer 
that, let me mention a few things that God's 
plumb-line is not. 

1st. It is not our own depraved ideas of things. 
Sin not only hardens the conscience, but often 
convinces the wrong-doer that many sinful 
things are not sinful at all. The understanding 
becomes more darkened ; the judgment more 
perverted. And so it is a common thing for 
men to argue that certain gross acts of immor- 
ality are not sinful. The feelings perverting 
the judgment — "the wish the father of the 
thought." Many consider trickery nothing 
more than shrewdness, for which they deserve 
great credit, and of which they boast. There 
is no harm, they say, in telling a lie, or in tak- 
ing an advantage of a man. No harm in tak- 
ing up a scandalous report against their neigh- 
bor's character, and to spread it around with 
far more zeal than they would his virtues. No 
harm in desecrating the Lord's day. No harm 
in dishonoring gray hairs, if their own vanity 
is thereby flattered. But because certain peo- 
ple consider these and other sins to be not 



76 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



sinful, is God going to judge them according to 
these ideas ? Oh, no. He will judge them by 
His own unerring plumb-line. In speaking of 
persons we sometimes hear it said, " He does 
not see the heinousness of his sin "; as if that 
were an excuse. But if a man chooses to al- 
low his passion or greed or vanity thus to blind 
his eyes, if he refuses to read God's word that 
he may find the truth, it is his own fault ; and 
the fact that, under such circumstances, he does 
not see the heinousness of his sin, will not 
make the offence any the less in God's sight, 
nor turn aside the sword of Justice. Remember 
that we are responsible, not only for the light 
which we have, but also for that which we might 
have had if we had done our duty. 

2d. God's plumb-line is not Popular Opinion. 
It is by this that man often judges. We praise 
that which others praise ; and look down upon 
that which others despise. We are apt to go 
with the crowd. When it cheers we cheer; 
when it hisses we hiss. Now this would be all 
right if the crowd were infallible. But we know 
that popular opinion is very uncertain. One 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



77 



day it strongly applauds an action that the next 
day it as strongly condemns. Sometimes it is 
on the side of virtue, and sometimes on the 
side of vice — sometimes for God, and some- 
times for Baal. Bismarck once said that some 
time before that persons, to show their hatred 
of him, would grossly insult him on the street. 
They cheered him now, he said, but in a short 
time they might be insulting again. Rienzi 
was so popular with the Roman people that, 
though poor, he was able to drive from the 
city its robber nobles, and to rule as Tribune. 
In seven months so unpopular did he become 
that no one answered his summons to defend 
the city against its enemies ; and he had to flee. 
Some six years later he was appointed by Pope 
Innocent VI. to rule Rome under the title of 
Senator; and he was welcomed with hearty, 
earnest manifestations of joy. But in four 
months his palace was burned by an infuriated 
mob, and he was murdered. We see Christ 
Himself so popular with the people that they 
spread branches of palm-trees, and even their 
clothes, as a carpet over which He might ride ; 



78 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



while on all sides they shout, " Hosanna to the 
son of David : Blessed is He that cometh in the 
name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest.'* 
Five days later they cry out, " Not this man, 
but Barabbas." "Away with Him, away with 
Him." " Crucify Him, crucify Him." Popular 
opinion is more rightly called a weathercock 
than a plumb-line. Blessed be God, He will not 
judge us by that. Yet how many there are who 
strive to frame their actions by it. We find this 
among all classes. Especially is it noticeable 
among the public men of this country. Many 
of them study how they can catch or hold the 
rabble vote. And so we find men, themselves 
Protestants, who are ever ready to cater to the 
Papacy, and especially to denounce everything 
British, just to please and catch the Irish Ro- 
manists. Shame ! that these representative men 
should so degrade their manhood and dishonor 
their country ! Shame ! I say again. 

But what shall I say of ministers of the Gospel 
who in the attempt to win applause, or fearing 
lest some one might take offence, withhold 
truths that should be loudly proclaimed? Not 



Setting the Plumb-line. 79 



many years ago, a minister in the State of New- 
York, in whose congregation many were far from 
being orthodox, and who even differed in their 
heterodoxy, was asked by a brother minister 
how he managed to please such a congregation. 
"Oh," he replied, "I just preach science." 
God help us! How many there are who, in 
the attempt to be popular, keep back plain, es- 
sential teachings of God's word; while they 
deal out to souls, starving, dying, on the brink 
of eternity, little but husks. 

Among all classes we find men who crave 
after the praise of the world. God tells them 
to do something ; but they first want to know if 
it will take well. The great questions with 
them are, " How is this going to please ? " "I 
wonder if any one will be offended ? " They 
would sooner do wrong than face adverse criti- 
cism. They want to bask forever in the sun- 
shine of popularity. And so by the weather- 
cock of public opinion they strive to build their 
lives. I say nothing against popularity in it- 
self. It is a good thing when it comes in a 
right way, and does not sweep a man off his 



8o At the Place which is called Calvary. 



feet. But do not let us crave after it. Let us 
do our duty to our God and our fellows, re- 
gardless of the consequences. u Whether there- 
fore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
all to the glory of God." Remember that we 
may be popular with man, and yet be " found 
wanting " when tried by God's plumb-line ; 
that we may be applauded by the world, while 
we are despised and condemned by God. 

3d. God's plumb-line is not the law of the land. 
One may do something that is not condemned 
by that law, that may even be authorized by it, 
and yet in God's sight it may be sinful. For 
sometimes earthly laws are directly opposed to 
God's laws. In one or more European coun- 
tries brothels are licensed by government, and 
men are ready to argue that because thus 
licensed they are lawful ; as if the license, the 
law of the land, made it right in God's sight. 
In our own more Christian country we license 
the sale of strong drink. But does God approve 
it ? Without violating the letter of the law, 
men take advantage of each other. We have 
a statute of limitation. That is a good thing 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



81 



in itself. The business world could not get on 
well without it. But suppose a debt is con- 
tracted ? Months and years pass. At last the 
creditor sends in the account. 

" Oh," says the debtor, " I do not owe you 
anything." 

" Yes, you do," says the creditor. " I sold 
you these things myself, and you have not paid 
for them." 

" But that was so many years ago," says the 
debtor. " The law of limitation has cancelled 
this account. Therefore I owe you nothing, 
and I will pay you nothing." 

In the eyes of our statute-books that man is 
innocent. In the eyes of God he is a base 
swindler : for the law of limitation never cancels 
an honest debt in God s sight. 

But why do I mention these ? To show that 
as there are certain things that are not contrary 
to the letter of our earthly laws that are sinful 
in God's sight, therefore He will not judge us 
by these laws. Yet how often do we find men 
taking shelter from their crimes behind the 
statute-books. They seem to think that if 



82 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



these sanction or do not condemn their actions, 
that these actions are legitimate. They forget 
that they are answerable to a higher lav/ — that 
our statute-books are not God's plumb-line. 

God's plumb-line is not the law of the land, 
not popular opinion, not our own depraved 
ideas of things. Then, what is it ? 

God had given the Children of Israel His 
word as a guide to direct them in private, fam- 
ily, and national matters. As good masons 
build according to the plumb-line, so God wished 
them to take His word as the rule of their 
lives. This, then, is the plumb-line with which 
God was to inspect the Children of Israel. In 
other words, it is Perfection. It does not al- 
low of any deviation. By this same perfect 
word He will inspect us. Blessed be God it is 
not a strange plumb-line, but the one which He 
has given us for our daily guidance. 

" Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a 
plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel." 

I note that God will inspect our bad work 
with His plumb-line. " For God shall bring 
every work into judgment, with every secret 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



83 



thing, whether it be good, or whether it be 
evil." * He has the right to do this ; for He is 
Lord of all. Fie has the power to do it ; for 
He is omnipotent. We can hide nothing from 
Him; for He is omniscient. We may some- 
times do certain things, regarding which, if any 
one spoke to us, we might say, " Oh, that need 
not concern you. That's my own business." 
But there will come a time when we will find out 
that it is not altogether our own business after 
all. The Lord is going to put His plumb-line 
to our actions ; and if we have not acted up- 
rightly with our God and with our fellows He 
will want to know the reason why. And when 
He does this, He will do it with such power 
that we will not care to question His authority. 
There are many who can sin with impunity, so 
far as earthly laws are concerned, because of 
their high position ; but there are none so high 
that God cannot bring them down. We may 
evade the law here through a technicality; but 
God judges according to Truth. There are sins 
that are not punishable in the eyes of our law ; 
* Eccl. xii. 14. 



84 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



but there are none such in the eyes of God. 
Therefore He is going to judge " those that op- 
press the hireling in his wages, the widow and 
the fatherless." He is going to judge the 
liquor-sellers, whether licensed or unlicensed ; 
from the man who owns the fine distillery, and 
has one of the best pews in church, to the man 
who runs the low den in the alley. He will 
measure the tears of orphans they have caused 
to flow ; He will fathom the sighs that have 
come from broken-hearted fathers and mothers, 
and wives and sisters, because of strong drink ; 
He will compute the sins which they have 
caused to be committed, and the souls they 
have driven to destruction. There may be se- 
cret sins that are yet hidden from the world, 
and those who committed them may be con- 
gratulating themselves that they will never be- 
come known. But these sins are not so secret 
as they might wish them to be. God knows all 
about them. The slander that was uttered in 
the ear, with the caution, " Now, on your honor, 
do not say I told you about this," God heard 
it. The stumbling-block that was put in a 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



85 



brother's way, God saw it. The dishonest 
transaction, God was watching it all the time. 
The manufacturer may adulterate his goods, 
and sell them for the pure article. The store- 
keeper may measure his merchandise so adroitly 
that, though the customer be looking on, he 
steals an inch from every yard ; he may have 
one pair of scales for buying and another for sell- 
ing ; he may have one price for those who know 
the value of his goods, and another price for 
those who do not. The clerk may pilfer. The 
shoemaker may put bad leather in our shoes 
and charge us for good. The carpenter may use 
No. 2 boards when the contract calls for No. I. 
The servant may waste his employer's time 
when that employer's back is turned. We may 
do wrong in many ways, without letting the 
world know anything about it. But we cannot 
hide these things from the great, all-seeing Eye. 
" For the ways of man are before the eyes of 
the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings." * 
" There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, 
where the workers of iniquity may hide them- 
* Proverbs v. 21. 



86 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



selves." * Even their thoughts are plain to 
Him, with all their gross impurities and schem- 
ings and plottings. " Be sure your sin will find 
you out." f " Be not deceived ; God is not 
mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap." % God is going to drag our 
sins to the light, and answer will have to be 
made for them. He is coming down with His 
plumb-line in His hand. And He will try our 
ledgers by it, and the way we made our money 
by it ; and our home conduct ; and our conduct 
while we were away from home when we 
thought no one marked our steps. 

Let none, then, congratulate themselves on 
pleasure or wealth or honor, that does not 
rightly belong to them. Let none picture to 
themselves future happiness as the result of 
wrong-doing. Let none pride themselves that, 
because the plumb-line has long been withheld, 
it will be withheld forever. " The mills of the 
gods grind slowly ; but they grind exceeding 
small." God will bring all our works into judg- 
ment. Our sins, even those that have long 

* Job xxxiv. 22. f Num. xxxii. 23. \ Gal. vi. 7. 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



37 



been forgotten by us, will come trooping up ; 
and they will halt before us ; and we will have 
to answer for them one by one. " For God 
shall bring every work into judgment, with 
every secret thing, whether it be good, or 
whether it be evil." * 

I note further that God will inspect our good 
works with His plumb-line. 

For convenience, let us divide good works 
into two classes — those that are done through 
worthy motives, and those that are done 
through unworthy motives. The Lord is going 
to bring them all into judgment ; and to sepa- 
rate them the one from the other. I thank God 
for this. For there are many who are mis- 
judged. A person gives to some good cause 
because he loves God and humanity ; and there 
are those who turn up the nose and say, " The 
old hypocrite ! He only did it to be seen of 
men — it's only to draw custom." Another per- 
son gives through selfish motives ; and many 
praise him for it. It is hard for us to tell the 
one from the other. But God will try these 

* Eccl. xii. 14. 



88 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



by His plumb-line. He will not make a mis- 
take in judgment. Therefore I want to say to 
those who give through unworthy motives that 
it is not going to do them much good. Men 
may praise them, and build monuments for 
them when they are gone ; but the Lord will 
not praise them. But I want to say to those 
who work and give for God's glory, that no 
matter how man may misjudge you, God will 
smile upon you, and in the presence of men 
and angels will say, " Well done, good and 
faithful servant." * It is with the Lord, then, 
that we have to do. Never mind what the 
world thinks. 

Yes, God is going to set His plumb-line to 
our good deeds. As He will bring out our 
secret sins, and make us answer for them, so He 
will bring out your secret good deeds, and bless 
you for them. That time you slipped the piece 
of money into the hand of the deserving poor, 
and then hurried away with blushing face for 
fear some one would see you — God saw it. He 
saw you that time you got a certain poor but 
* Matt. xxv. 21. 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



8 9 



industrious woman, who had a starving family 
at home, into your house. And after you had 
given her something substantial to eat, you 
went up-stairs and brought down this good 
dress and that good shawl and a dozen of other 
things ; and as you gave them to her you made 
her promise that she would say nothing about 
it. You then read to her from the Bible, and 
knelt with her in prayer. When she had gone, 
the tear of pity came to your eye ; and as it 
dropped, God caught it up, and made it into a 
brilliant diamond for your heavenly crown. 
And that cold, rainy day, when the little boy, 
hungry and ragged and shivering, asked you to 
buy a paper, instead of doing so you slipt him 
a shilling. And when, having got over his 
astonishment, he ran after you, and said, 
"Please what's your name?" you smiled and 
said, " Oh, never mind that ; you be a good 
boy ; won't you ? " You did not want these 
things to become known. But do not flatter 
yourselves that you can go on doing these 
deeds of mercy without being found out, much 
though in the goodness of your heart you 



90 At the Place zvhich is called Calvary. 



would like to do so. God is watching you. 
He will set His plumb-line to your actions. 
And that loving smile which was intended to 
cheer the lonesome and the downcast ; and this 
visit to the poor or the sick or the bereaved, 
where you made everything so bright because 
you brought Jesus in with you ; and that time 
you sat up with the sick person ; and that other 
time when you pointed the prodigal to Christ ; 
and this cheering word and that kind act, done 
in the name of the Master ; although we may 
know nothing about them, God is going to 
bring them to the light. I imagine I see the 
blush of modesty on your cheek as He says to 
you : " I was an hungered, and ye gave me 
meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was 
a stranger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye 
clothed me ; I was sick, and ye visited me ; I 
was in prison, and ye came unto me." * And I 
hear you say, " Lord, when saw we Thee ahun- 
gered, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee 
drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and 
took Thee in ? or naked, and clothed Thee ? or 
* Matt. xxv. 35-40. 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



91 



when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came 
unto Thee ? And the King shall answer and 
say: Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

But I note further, that God will inspect our 
religion with His plumb-line. It is sometimes 
hard for us to tell the Christian from the man 
of the world. Together they come into the 
house of God. They sit together in the same 
pew. They blend their voices in the same 
hymns of praise. In time of prayer they both 
bow the head. When the offering is taken 
up, they both contribute. The one listens as 
attentively to the sermon as the other. As we 
see them there we cannot tell by their deport- 
ment which one is the Christian, or if both are, 
or neither. We go into the prayer-meeting. 
There the Christian prays, and there the hypo- 
crite. Yet we cannot tell by their prayers 
which is the Christian, and which the hypocrite, 
or if both are Christians or both hypocrites. 
We sometimes say, " That man is not a Chris- 
tian," when he is. We say, " That other man 



92 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



is," when he is not. With our present powers 
of discernment, if we were to sit in judgment 
on our fellows, we might place some at the left 
hand who should be at the right, and some at 
the right hand who should be at the left. Now, 
should it not be a blessed thought to all those 
who are honestly striving to do His will, that 
God is going to set His plumb-line to our re- 
ligion? There need be no fear that He will 
make a mistake, for He judges by the heart. 
What great reason the true child of God, un- 
worthy though he may be, has to rejoice ; while 
" the sinners in Zion " should be afraid, fear 
should take hold of the hypocrite. 

Yes, God is going to put our religion to the 
test. He will not judge us in a crowd, but in- 
dividually. " Each one of us shall give account 
of himself to God." * We will see, then, that 
it is not enough for us to make a profession of 
religion. Every Christian, indeed, should show 
his colors ; but one may wave the Lord's flag 
while he is in the Devil's service. Not long 
ago I called on a man who sold liquor and kept 
* Rom. xiv. 12. 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



93 



a disorderly house, to induce him, if possible, 
to act differently. How did he receive me? 
He told me that he was "just trusting in Jesus." 
Oh, my dear brethren, " Faith without works 
is dead." * " Except your righteousness shall 
exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and 
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the 
kingdom of Heaven." f We will also see that 
it is not enough for us to be orthodox. The 
head may accept while the heart rejects. I 
think James must have met some who trusted 
in their orthodoxy; for he hurls at them one 
of the finest pieces of sarcasm that ever de- 
scended upon the head of any man : " Thou 
believest that there is one God ; thou doest 
well ; the devils also believe, and tremble." X 
Neither is it enough for us to occupy a posi- 
tion of responsibility in the Church. Jesus 
says, " Many will say to me in that day, ' Lord, 
Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name ? 
and in Thy name have cast out devils? and 
in Thy name done many wonderful works?' 
And then will I profess unto them, I never 
* James ii 20. t Matt. v. 20. % James ii. 19. 



94 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



knew you : depart from me, ye that work in- 
iquity."* 

What, then, is necessary? Let us look to 
the plumb-line by which we will be judged. 
" Ye must be born again." f "Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." % 
" What doth the Lord require of thee, but to 
do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk hum- 
bly with thy God." § " Whether, therefore, 'ye 
eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the 
glory of God." || 

The religion of Jesus Christ is something 
more than a business or social convenience. 
There are too many who profess it for the dol- 
lars and cents it brings them. The Devil does 
not want any more of a man than that he be- 
come a false professor of religion, a man whom 
the world cannot trust — a policy Christian. 
Such an one does more for the cause of Satan 
than a dozen ordinary out-and-out infidels 
or drunkards or debauchees; for he lowers 
Christianity in the eyes of the world, and by 

* Matt. vii. 22, 23. t John iii. 7. \ Acts xvi. 31. 

§ Micah vi. 8. I! 1 Cor. x. 31. 



Setting the Plumb-line. 



95 



his inconsistency drives men to infidelity and 
sin. 

True religion is simple faith in Christ Jesus, 
associated with goodly living, which is the out- 
come of that faith. It is of such a nature as 
will make a man refuse to do a dishonest act 
even though he knew no one else would ever 
know it ; to resist impurity even though it 
should be forever hidden from the world ; to 
tell the truth even though it should seem to be 
a lie, and though a lie should seem to be the 
truth ; though the truth should injure him, 
while the lie would help him. It is a religion 
that we can use every day of the week ; that 
shines just as brightly in our working clothes 
as in our Sabbath broadcloth ; that we can take 
with us into our business and our recreations, 
at home or abroad. It makes servants more 
faithful, and masters more considerate. It 
makes persons better parents and children and 
husbands and wives and friends. In short, it 
is a grand principle, that may be summed up 
in these words : " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 



g6 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



soul, and with all thy strength, and with all 
thy mind ; and thy neighbor as thyself." * 

" Then said the Lord, Behold I will set a 
plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel." 
He also will set His plumb-line to us. What 
are we going to do about it ? For who can be 
just with his Maker? There is but one way in 
which we can stand the inspection. Let us give 
ourselves and all that we have to the Lord. 
Let us get behind the Cross. Let our daily 
prayer be, " Nearer, my God, to Thee "; our 
daily effort to do His will. Then Christ's right- 
eousness will purge away our unrighteousness, 
for " the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanseth 
us from all sin." f 

* Luke x. 27. f 1 John i. 7. 



EXCUSES. 

"And they all with one consent began to make ex- 
cuse." — Luke xiv. 18. 

The Saviour here tells us that "A certain 
man made a great supper, and bade many: 
and sent his servant at supper-time to say to 
them that were bidden, Come ; for all things 
are now ready." Now what did those per- 
sons that were invited do ? The text tells us. 
" And they all with one consent began to make 
excuse." 

This " certain man " represents God. The 
" supper " represents salvation through Jesus 
Christ, with all its attendant blessings. And 
we are the ones that are invited ; and some of 
us have been making excuses. May God help 
me to show you who thus act, the extreme 
foolishness of your position, and to urge you to 

(97) 



98 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



flee from the wrath to come — to lay hold on 
eternal life. 

I. One excuse which persons nowadays 
make is, / have no leisure, at present, to think 
about it. I know I should attend to 7ny souls 
welfare ; and I hope to have sufficient leisure 
by and by. But, really, at present I am too 
busy. My friend, when do you think you will 
have more leisure? Is it not likely that you 
will be just as busy five years hence, if you are 
living, as now ? Suppose you will never have 
more time at your disposal : — how then ? 

You think that when you get old you will be 
able to give it your attention. Granting that 
you will live to be old, how do you know that 
you will then have the inclination to come to 
Christ ? Have you not seen persons with hoary 
head and tottering step, with one foot in the 
grave, and the other ready to follow, without 
one serious thought of the world to come ? I 
have known such persons. They had been 
brought up under ordinary religious influences. 
Probably there have been times when they 



Excuses. 



99 



thought very seriously about giving themselves 
to Christ ; but like some of you they put it off 
for " a more convenient season." But when 
the convenient season came they had not the 
inclination. Following in these persons' foot- 
steps, what guarantee have you that you will 
not come to the same sad condition? You 
think it will be easier to turn to God when you 
get older. I tell you it will be more difficult ; 
the heart will be harder, the bad habits will be 
more firmly rooted, and, if you should desire 
to be saved, Satan will harass you with doubts. 
The thought that it will be easier is but a de- 
lusion of the Devil. 

Or do you think you will resist the overtures 
of mercy until you are on your death-bed? 
Supposing that you will have a lingering death, 
how do you know you will then be in posses- 
sion of your reason ? Fever may make you 
delirious ; and thus you may die. But even 
should you remain in possession of your senses 
until the last; do you think that the sick-bed is 
a good place on which to repent? Pulse up to 
a hundred, head splitting, mouth parched, fever 



ioo At the Place which is called Calvary. 



coursing through your veins like a race-horse, 
and Satan whispering that awful lie, " Too late ! 
too late ! " Not long ago, a brother minister 
visited a young man who was dying. He 
spoke to him about his soul. " Oh," said that 
young man, " you need not talk to me. I do 
not believe in death-bed repentance. I refused 
Christ when I was well ; and now it is too late. 
I am lost." The clergyman told him that Je- 
sus Christ came to seek and to save the lost. 
That if he would but look to God He would 
save him. But he died without giving any evi- 
dence of having accepted salvation. Oh, sin- 
ner, when will you be wise ? If you keep on in 
sin, how do you know that that young man's 
case will not also be yours ? Remember that 
God will save you at the very last moment if 
you will but truly repent. But how do you 
know that you will ? 

You say you have not time. Stop a moment, 
and think. Is it time that you need, or the in- 
clination ? Suppose a certain man said to you, 
" I will give you $10 a day if you will devote 
two hours of that day to me. But it is on con- 



Excuses. 



101 



dition that you are not to give up any of your 
present work." Would you not find time to earn 
those ten dollars ? Yes. But yet you cannot find 
time to attend to the needs of your soul ! My 
friend, you will have to find time to die, and to 
appear before the bar of God to be judged. Then, 
I beseech you, make your calling and election 
sure now. 

And besides, if you have your worries and 
troubles and bereavements, you especially need 
Jesus to help you to bear them. Instead of be- 
ing a hindrance, you will find Him a blessed help. 
You will be able to cast your burden upon the 
Lord who will sustain you. For my own part 
I do not know how I could get on without the 
Lord to help me. Sometimes I have felt that 
if He forsook me the very heart-strings would 
break. But I have taken the Bible and from 
those blessed Psalms I have read that " The 
Lord reigneth," * that " The Lord is my rock, 
and my fortress, and my deliverer," f that " The 
Lord is my shepherd," % and that "All the 
paths of the Lord are loving-kindness and 
* Ps. xcvii. i. t Ps. xviii. 2. % Ps. xxiii. 1. 



102 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



truth unto such as keep His covenant and His 
testimonies." * I have thought, too, how He has 
said, " To them that love God all things work 
together for good." f Then I have knelt down 
and told Him all — silently, perhaps, lest some 
one else might hear that which I would have 
no one but God know. And oh ! the blessed- 
ness of casting one's burden upon the Lord ! 
It makes one feel that these burdens are a bless- 
ing because they bring us so close to Him. 
And what a comfort it is to know that the 
Ruler of the universe is our friend, and that He 
will give us what is best. 

Even if you knew that you would live to be 
old, and that you would repent and be saved, 
you cannot afford to do without Jesus now. 
You should accept Him to-night ; for there is 
a dark, swelling river ahead of you that you 
will have to go through. I see for some of you 
financial troubles. Some evening when you go 
home, your wife will see your troubled face, 
and going up to you she will put her arms 
about your neck, and say, " My dear, what is the 
* Ps. xxv. 10. f Rom. viii. 28. 



Excuses. 



103 



matter?" And you will tell her that you have 
lost everything. Then many of your old friends 
(so-called) will give you the cold shoulder; and 
you will find it hard to make ends meet. 
When you have eaten your breakfast you will 
not know where the dinner is coming from. 
For others I see headaches and backaches and 
heartaches. I see you mourning over a loved 
one gone astray, who might never have done so if 
you had set before her the example of a godly life. 
For others I see the vacant chair, the empty 
cradle, the new-made grave. I see you stand 
by the window, and wonder if you will ever 
meet that loved one again. I hear you say, " Oh, 
if I had but given myself to Christ she might 
have done so too. I remember when she 
thought seriously about it, but I did not en- 
courage her." Oh, sinner, how are you going 
to bear some of these burdens ? How are you 
going to avoid the others? How? By giving 
yourself, body and soul, to Jesus. If your busi- 
ness is such that you cannot consecrate it to 
Him, then in God's name I beseech you to get 
out of that business. Do not wait until you be- 



104 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



come old, or until death stares you in the face, 
or until " after a while." But this very night, 
this moment, now, lift up your heart to God. 
Say, " Lord, save me." " Now is the acceptable 
time ; behold, now is the day of salvation." * 

II. Another excuse that persons make is, 
" There is plenty of time." These do not say 
they have no leisure, but they think that it is 
not necessary to hurry over it. 

" Plenty of time " ! How do you know that ? 
How long are you going to live? Ten years? 
One year? One month? One day? Why do 
you not answer? Because you cannot. And 
yet you say, "plenty of time." You may be in 
good health now ; but persons, just as healthy 
as you, have been hurried into eternity. 

A few years ago, while some of the scholars 
at a certain school were sitting together, the 
question was asked all around, " What would 
you do if you knew you were to die within 
twenty-four hours? " Among them was one of 
the healthiest and strongest fellows in the 
* 2 Cor. vi. 2. 



Excuses. 



105 



school. When the question came to him, he 
replied: "If I knew I was to die within three 
days, I would spend all that time in making 
preparation to meet my God." Within three 
days that young man was dead. Being slightly 
indisposed, the doctor by mistake gave him 
something which threw him into a deep sleep 
from which he never awakened. 

A good minister once dreamt that he was in 
Hell. There he saw Satan seated on a throne, 
and around him were the other fallen angels. 
" Which of you," he asked, " will go to the 
earth and keep man from serving God ? " "I 
will go," said one. " How will you do it ? " 
Satan asked. " I will tell them," was the re- 
ply, " that there is no God." " That will not 
do," replied Satan ; " you can never make them 
believe that. There are too many evidences 
that there is a God. Who will go ? " "I will 
go," said another. " And what will you tell 
them?" " I will tell them that the Bible is 
not true." "That will not do," Satan again 
replied. "There are too many evidences, in- 
ternal and external, that it is true. Who will 



lo6 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



go ? " " I will," said a third. " And what will 
you tell them ?" "I will tell them," he replied, 
" that there is no future punishment." But 
Satan again answered, " That will not do. 
Reason and the Bible both proclaim that 
there is. Who will go?" "I will go," said a 
fourth. " And what will you tell them ? " "I 
will tell them that there is a God, that the Bi- 
ble is true, that there is a Heaven to be won, 
and a Hell to be shunned ; but I will say, 
Plenty of time, plenty of time." And it is with 
this excuse that the Devil has been deluding 
souls for nearly six thousand years. But when 
he gets the poor sinner on the death-bed, he 
lies to him again, saying, " Too late ! too late ! " 
though God says, " Him that cometh unto me, 
I will in no wise cast out." * 

Plenty of time ! As well might the sea cap- 
tain, whose vessel was rushing on to the rocks, 
say to those who might wish him to change his 
course, " Plenty of time ! plenty of time ! " 
And I tell you, sinner, if you do not wish to 
make eternal shipwreck, you should change 
* John vi. 37. 



Excuses. 



107 



your course 7tow, and instead of steering to- 
ward destruction, make straight for the port of 
Heaven. How do you know that you will live 
to be old? How do you know that a mo- 
ment's warning will be given you, except the 
great warning that has been sounding in your 
ears that death may come as a thief in the 
night? Man's life, at the best, is short and un- 
certain. He is well to-day — within a week he 
may be in his grave. Perhaps even now the 
Angel of Death is looking at you and saying, 
" Just six days more, and that person must 
die." You may be in good health, and living 
in the prospect of many years. Monday comes, 
and the Angel says, "Just five days more." 
But he says it in a whisper, and you do not 
hear him, for health is bounding through your 
veins. Tuesday arrives, and you have only 
four days left. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 
pass ; but you little dream of the awful change 
that is so soon to take place. But Saturday 
morning comes. You go out as usual to your 
daily work. Is it an oath that is on your lips? 
Or is it a prayer? The sun is shining brightly, 



io8 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



and you are laying your plans for the future. 
But you have just one moment more to live. 
Oh, sinner, prepare to meet thy God ! Cry out : 
Jesus, have mercy ! For death is stealing up. 
His sword is drawn. With one fell stroke " the 
silver cord " is broken ; and, without a moment's 
warning, you stand before your God. Are you 
ready to meet Him? What will you answer 
when He brings against you misspent oppor- 
tunities of doing good, Sabbaths idly frittered 
away or more shamefully profaned, oaths, lies, 
dishonesty, immorality, or debauchery ? What 
will you say when the Judge asks you why you 
did not serve Christ ? Oh, that you would 
only answer these questions now in the light of 
eternity, and thus be led to throw yourself at 
the feet of the loving Saviour, who " is able to 
save to the uttermost them that draw near 
unto God through Him." * 

III. But again : — there are those who admit 
that they would like to be saved, and they in- 
tend to accept salvation some time, but they 

* Heb. vii. 25. 



Excuses, 



109 



say they want to enjoy themselves a little first. 
They think that religion is a good thing for fa- 
ther and mother, the minister, the Sunday- 
school teacher, and all old or sick persons ; but 
it is too long-faced for them. Who told you 
that the religion of Christ was long-faced? 
What right have you to perpetrate that awful 
slander? I must say that you are altogether 
mistaken. The Devil is only cheating you 
when he tells you that. My dear young 
friends,, true Christianity, instead of having a 
tendency to gloominess, is calculated to make 
a person very happy. I take up this blessed 
Book, and I turn from Genesis to Revelation, 
but I find nothing to the effect that the Chris- 
tian should be gloomy or long-faced. I read 
where our Blessed Saviour said to His follow- 
ers, " Rejoice, and be exceeding glad." * I 
read, too, of " the peace of God, which passeth 
all understanding." f I also read, " The wicked 
are like the troubled sea; for it cannot rest, 
and its waters cast up mire and dirt. There is 
no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." % 
* Matt. v. 12, t Phil. iv. 7. % Isaiah lvii. 20, 21. 



I TO At the Place which is called Calvary, 



Why should the Christian be gloomy ? Be- 
cause he lives in the sunshine of God's favor? 
Because the Spirit of God beareth witness with 
his spirit that he is a child of God ? Because 
there is " no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus"?* Because He is the Son of a 
King who will make all things work together 
for His good ? f I tell you, my friend, that the 
Christian is the only one who has a right to be 
happy. How can you be so, oh sinner, when 
down in your heart you know that you may 
die at any moment, and that after death is the 
judgment?:): If you mean by being gloomy 
and long-faced, that you will have to give up 
sinful pleasure, I tell you most emphatically 
that you will have to do that. You cannot 
serve God and be on the Devil's pay-roll at the 
same time. You will not, however, be required 
to give up lawful pleasures lawfully indulged in. 
But, after all, what are the pleasures of earth, 
whether illicit or lawful, to that which comes 
by faithfully serving God ? 

Walking through a street in one of our smaller 
* Rom. viii. i. t Rom. viii. 28. \ Heb. ix. 27. 



Excuses. 



1 1 1 



cities I more than once remarked that the build- 
ings were beautiful. One evening after that I 
went to see Regan's views of Paris. Well, they 
were magnificent. But when I came out, oh, how 
mean, how insignificant these other buildings 
looked after having seen the magnificent Paris- 
ian buildings. So is it with sinful pleasures. 
How fascinating they are for a time. But get 
a taste of the pleasure that is to be derived 
from communion with God, open but your 
heart, and let the floods of heavenly joy del- 
uge you, and how poor, how mean, how repuls- 
ive you will find the pleasures of sin. 

IV. There are those who are anxious to be 
saved, and who feel that they cannot afford to 
delay one moment, but yet they have not taken 
the final step. What is hindering you ? What 
spectre is that that Satan is putting before your 
eyes ? Is it shame ? You feei, perhaps, that if 
you were to become very sick, and it was 
thought that you would die, you could come 
right out for Christ, for you would be expected 
to do so then. If there was a great revival, 



112 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



and hundreds were confessing Christ, you could 
do so in the crowd. It would then be fashion- 
able. Or if all your relatives and friends were 
Christians, you think it would be easier. But 
as it is, you are ashamed. Ashamed of whom ? 
Suppose you had a friend who was as no- 
ble as he could be, and he went through 
great sufferings in order to save you from 
an awful fate, would you be ashamed of 
him? Suppose, too, that that friend was a 
great king, and he was, oh, so handsome, and 
his subjects loved and worshipped him, would 
you be ashamed of him ? Oh, no ! You would be 
proud of him ; you would ever be ready to de- 
fend his name. Now Jesus is the grandest, 
the noblest one, who ever trod this earth. He 
is King of kings and Lord of lords, the Creator 
and Governor of the universe. The highest 
angels worship Him. He died to save you, and 
now day by day Fie supplies all your wants. 
Oh, why then should you be ashamed of your 
best friend, the King ? The wonder is that He 
is not ashamed of you. But if you continue 
in your course, the time will come when He will 



Excuses. 



"3 



be ashamed of you, as well He might be. He 
says, " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and 
of my words, of him shall the Son of man be 
ashamed, when He cometh in His own glory, 
and the glory of the Father, and of the holy 
angels." * 

But perhaps it is the spectre of failure that 
Satan is putting before you. Is he saying to 
you, It is useless for you to give yourself up to 
Christ, for you will not be able to hold out ; 
and then you will be laughed at? But I ask 
you, How are you going to be saved at all if 
you do not try? Suppose you are out at 
sea. You fall overboard. Instantly a no- 
ble fellow plunges into the waves to rescue 
you. He reaches your side as you are about to 
go down. He says, " Do as I tell you, and I 
will save you.'* But you reply, " I am afraid I 
cannot hold out." And resisting his prof- 
fered assistance you go down to a watery grave. 
" Oh," you say, " I would not be such a fool." 
I know you would not. You have too much 
common sense in temporal matters. But being 
* Luke ix. 26. 



114 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



out of Christ you are drowning in the sea of 
Divine Retribution. Mercy cries, "A man 
overboard ! A man overboard ! " And all 
Heaven is in a state of excitement, for her 
Prince, having robed Himself in the garb of 
humanity, has plunged into the waves to save 
you. Oh, how great must have been the chill, 
leaping from the embattlements of a warm 
Heaven into this cold world ! And as He rises 
on the wave of worldly privation, I see Him 
tired and footsore, and hungry and homeless. 
As He rises again on the wave of man's hatred, 
I see that He is bleeding from head, and back, 
and hands, and feet, and side. I see Him buf- 
feted and spit upon and jeered at. And as He 
again rises before my view on the wave of stern 
justice, above the whistling of the winds and 
the roaring of the billows, I hear that awful 
cry, " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken 
me? "* I see the hosts of Hell, headed by the 
great arch-enemy of souls, and filled with inde- 
scribable malignity, swoop down upon Him 
with awful fury. Oh 5 can He save you, can He 



Excuses. 



US 



save you ? I look again. Oh, blessed be God ! 
with His mighty arm He is scattering the powers 
of Hell. He is overcoming every obstacle. He 
is now by your side ready to save you with the 
arm of His omnipotence. Catch a hold of 
Him, poor sinner! He is your only hope. I 
hear Him say to you, " Believe on the Lord Je- 
sus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." But you 
reply, " I cannot hold out, and then I should 
be laughed at." He replies, " The Eternal 
God is thy refuge, and underneath are the 
everlasting arms." You say, " I w r ould like to, 
but I know I cannot hold out." But He says 
again, " He that hath begun a good work in 
you will perform it until the day of Christ Je- 
sus." " My grace is sufficient for thee : for 
my strength is made perfect in weakness." But 
you push Him away — Him that left a glorious 
Heaven to save you — and listening to the voice 
of Satan, you sink to death eternal. Oh, sin- 
ner, so wise in earthly matters, can you be such 
a fool ? 

I will admit that many have gone back into 
sin after having, as they had thought, accepted 



1 1 6 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



salvation. But investigate such cases, and you 
will find that they had not given themselves 
up wholly to Christ, nor used all the means of 
grace. In many cases some secret sin had been 
cherished. I am fully persuaded that the great 
reason why so many fall back after great re- 
vivals is, that instead of using all the means 
that God has given them of growing in grace 
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, they depend wholly for strength 
upon sentimentalism ; and therefore when the 
nightly meetings are over their religion soon 
falls to the ground. And I tell you candidly, 
sinner, that if you are not ready to do as Christ 
bids you, you need not expect to hold out. 
But if you make a full surrender of yourself to 
Him, if you look to Him for strength, if you 
use all the means of grace (such as private 
prayer, the daily, prayerful reading of the 
Scriptures, and a faithful attendance on God's 
house), if you obey all the dictates of your 
conscience, making " no provision for the flesh 
to fulfil the lusts thereof," and if you work faith- 
fully for Him (do not neglect that), all Hell 



Excuses. 



117 



itself will not be able to drag you from the 
arms of Jesus. 

But perhaps Satan is putting before your 
minds the spectre of utter hopelessness. You 
are saying, " I would like to be saved ; but 
I am too great a sinner. I sinned away my 
chances, and now I am lost." " Lost ! " did you 
say lost ? " Lost ? " Are you sure of that ? 
Because, if you are, you are the very person I 
want to see. My Lord has given me a message 
for you. Listen to it. " The Son of man came 
to seek and to save that which is lost." * Now, 
if you are sure you are lost this message is for 
you, and Jesus is waiting to save you for time 
and for eternity. But you say, " I have sinned 
so deeply, I have spurned God's love, I have 
so long resisted the Holy Spirit, that I am afraid 
I am beyond hope." Then if that be so, you 
are indeed lost. But as Jesus " came to seek 
and to save the lost," He came to seek and to 
save you. Oh, sinner, would you limit the effi- 
cacy of the blood of Christ ? Do you say that 
while it is able to wash away the sins of others, 
* Luke xix. 10. 



1 1 8 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



it cannot cleanse you? If so, you are insult- 
ing Christ. You are plainly telling Him that 
as an all-powerful Saviour He is a grand failure. 
You are in effect saying, that although when 
God gave His only begotten Son, it was His 
design "that whosoever believeth on Him 
should not perish, but have eternal life," * yet 
He cannot save you. You are contradicting 
God's word, which says : " Though your sins 
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be 
as wool." f " Him that cometh to me I will in 
no wise cast out." % But you say, " I did not 
mean that Christ's mission was a failure. I was 
looking at myself." Then look away from self 
to Jesus. Thank God that you feel your guilt, 
and that you see you cannot save yourself; but 
do not measure His almightiness by your weak- 
ness. " He is able to save to the uttermost 
them that draw near unto God through Him." § 
Did He not save Paul, whose hands were red 
with the blood of saints ? Did He not save 

* John iii. 16. t Isaiah i. 18. 

% John vi. 37. § Heb. vii. 25. 



Excuses. 



119 



Colonel Gardner, John Bunyan, John Newton, 
Jerry McAuley, and thousands of others whose 
names were synonyms of sin ? And can He not 
save you ? " Faithful is the saying, and worthy 
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners ; of whom I am 
chief."* 

Do you doubt His love, His willingness to 
save you ? If so, stop and think. You know 
that He died to save you. He was not forced 
to do this, but He did it through love. He 
knew what kind of a character you would be, 
but still He died for you. Even now He is 
bidding you to the Gospel feast. You will notice 
in the passage from which my text is taken, 
that after the servant had gone out into " the 
streets and lanes of the city," and had brought 
" in hither the poor and maimed and blind and 
lame," " the Lord said unto the servant, Go 
out into the highways and hedges, and con- 
strain them to come in." " Highways and 
hedges " ! Who will He find there ? Why, 
there is a tramp under the hedge ; and the 
* 1 Timothy i. 15. 



120 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



Lord says, " Bring him in." On the highway- 
there is a bandit who has just murdered a 
man. But the Lord says, " Bring him also in." 
" Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
as white as snow." There is one just like you 
there, oh sinner. And the Lord says, " Be 
sure and bring him in. Tell him that I love 
him still." " Say unto them, As I live, saith 
the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death 
of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from 
his way and live : turn ye, turn ye from your 
evil ways ; for why will ye die? " * 

If you still doubt God's willingness to save 
you, read in your Bible how Jesus went down 
among the very worst of sinners and tried to 
lift them up ; how He never turned away any 
who came to Him, If that does not satisfy 
you, turn to the fifteenth chapter of Luke and 
read the story of the Prodigal. Pause when 
you come to the 20th verse,-—" But when he 
was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and 
had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, 
and kissed him." 

* Ezekiel xxxiii. 11. 



Excuses. 



121 



One day while going down Broadway, New 
York, I heard behind me the rapid sounding of 
a gong. Looking around, I saw carriages, 
stages, and trucks on that crowded thorough- 
fare make way. And through the opening 
came a hospital ambulance, the horse at full 
speed, the attendant continually sounding the 
gong to " clear the track." Being a little curi- 
ous, I asked a policeman the cause of such 
haste. He answered that a man had been very 
seriously injured, and for that reason an ambu- 
lance had been called.* As I walked along I 
could not help thinking — as it is with the tem- 
poral, so is it with the spiritual. When the 
sinner, stricken down by the Old Enemy, and 
covered with the slime and filth of iniquity, 
sends up that heartfelt ambulance alarm to the 
Court of Heaven, " God be merciful to me a 
sinner," " the horses of fire," fresh and strong 
as when they drew up the sainted Elijah, spring 
at the call. And the Charioteer, with His 

* This illustration was previously used by the author 
in an anonymous sermon on Luke xv. 20 (the first he 
ever wrote), which was published in the Presbyterian 
Witness, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, August 9, 1884. 



122 



At the Place which is called Calvary. 



nail-pierced hands, and nail-pierced feet, and 
spear-pierced side, rushing with electric speed 
to the side of the penitent, lifts him from the 
depths of sin, places him at His Fathers ta- 
ble, and marks him as an heir of God and a 
joint heir with Christ.* " But when he was yet 
a great way off, his father saw him, and had 
compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and 
kissed him." Oh, you who doubt God's will- 
ingness to save you, look at Bethlehem, Geth- 
semane, and Calvary, and doubt no longer. 

If time would permit, I would speak to you 
about other excuses. But oh, I urge you in 
God's name, cast aside whatever hinders you, 
and come to Jesus. He is now yearning in 
love over you. Will you not come ? He will 
give you a most affectionate welcome. " The 
Spirit and the bride say, Come ; and let him 
that heareth say, Come; and let him that is 
athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely." + " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." % 

* Rom. viii. 17. t Rev. xxii. 17. % Acts xvi. 31. 



VI. 



REPENTANCE. 

" Then Judas, which betrayed Him, when he saw that 
He was condemned, repented himself and brought 
back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests 
and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have 

betrayed innocent blood And he cast down 

the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and de- 
parted ; and he went away and hanged himself." — 
Matt, xxvii. 3-5. 

" And they went out, and preached that men should 
repent." — Mark vi. 12. 

What are we to understand " Repentance " 
to mean ? We are told in one place that Judas 
repented and " went away and hanged himself/' 
and in another place that the disciples " went 
out and preached that men should repent." 

Evidently there are two kinds of repentance 
spoken of in the New Testament. In the 
Greek (the language in which the New Testa- 
ment was written), there are two words for re- 
pent ; and, whatever difference there may be in 

(123) 



124 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



the classics, the New Testament writers seem to 
make a broad distinction between these. The 
word Metamelomai (jxeTajj.iXojuai) y which lit- 
erally means to have after-care, is only used by 
them six times. In 2 Corinthians vii. 8 : " Al- 
though I made you sony with a letter, I do not 
repent, though I did repent. " In the New Ver- 
sion " regret " is here used instead of " repent." 
In Hebrews vii. 21 : "The Lord sware, and 
will not repent, thou art a priest forever after 
the order of Melchisedec." The idea here is that 
He would have no " after-care " concerning it. 
The passage might have been translated, " The 
Lord sware, and will not regret it." In Mat- 
thew xxi. 29 : " He answered and said, I will 
not, but afterward he repented and went." 
Here again the word might be translated "re- 
gret." In the 32d verse of the same chapter 
we read, " And ye, when ye had seen it, re- 
pented not afterward, that ye might believe." 
It is not a "repentance unto life," an inward 
renovation, that is spoken of here. The idea 
is that they did not even regret the course they 
had taken ; for if they had been sorry for it, 



Repentance, 



125 



they might ultimately have been brought to a 
saving knowledge of the truth. 

Now, the other word, Metanoed {fj-sraroeoD), 
means to have a change of mind, and is used in 
the New Testament to signify an inward reno- 
vation. The word in its noun and verb forms 
appears fifty-five times. Whenever an entire 
change of life is spoken of, whenever men are 
called upon to leave their sins and turn to God, 
it is this word that is used, and not the other. 

In both the passages that we have taken for 
our text, we have the word " Repent." But in 
relation to Judas, the word "metamelomai " is 
used, which means to have after-care, to regret, 
while in the other passage " metanoeo " is used, 
which means to have a change of mind, or, as we 
might say, a change of life. 

But although there is such a difference be- 
tween these two kinds of repentance, we may 
mistake the one for the other in our own lives. 
As the counterfeit closely resembles the real 
coin, as " the veneering oft outshines the solid 
wood," we may delude ourselves. 

I note, therefore, that one may mourn over 



126 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



a sinful action without having true repentance. 
A man commits a certain crime. He is found 
out and disgraced. He is very sorry that he 
committed that sin, because of its results. He 
would give a great deal to be able to recall it. 
But yet he may have no desire to give himself 
to God. He may go on committing other sins 
without any compunctions of conscience. Yes, 
he is very sorry that he did it, and he may even 
mistake that feeling for penitence on account 
of his wrong-doing. But the real cause of his 
sorrow is, not that he did what was wrong- 
not that he sinned against his God, but because 
his sin has found him out. 

A person commits a murder. That act haunts 
him day and night. His soul is filled with re- 
morse. He may even be willing to give his life 
if only that deed could be thereby recalled ; he 
may confess his crime, he may return to those 
who hired him to do the deed the price of his 
iniquity, and yet he may not have any regrets 
because it was against God that he sinned. If 
it had been some other sin that would not 
have haunted him, the fact that he had vio- 



Repentance. 



127 



lated God's law would have given him no con- 
cern. 

Now this I take to be the case with Judas. His 
betrayal of Christ rose up before him, and filled 
him with remorse. But yet I do not think that 
he hated sin in its very nature. It was this one 
particular act of his that he seems to have re- 
gretted, not the fact that before God he also 
had a sinful heart. His soul was not filled 
with a desire for purification, but with remorse. 
He did not, like David, pray — 

" Create in me a clean heart, O God ; 
And renew a right spirit within me *; 

but he added sin to sin — " he went away and 
hanged himself." 

So you must see it is quite evident that one 
can have sorrow over a sinful action without 
having true repentance. 

But we would go much further and say, One 
may be sorry for all the sins he has ever com- 
mitted without having this true repentance. A 
person is out at sea in a storm when at any 
moment the ship may go to the bottom. Or 



128 At the Place which is called Calvary, 



he is attacked with sickness, and his life hangs 
upon a thread. He realizes the awful fact that 
in a very short time he may have to appear be- 
fore the bar of God to be judged for eternity. 
He is in great distress over his sins. Oh, how 
much he would give if he could only go back 
and live his life over again that he might be a 
faithful follower of the Lord Jesus. But is 
that in itself a sure evidence of true repentance, 
of a change of life? Is it sure evidence that 
he hates sin on account of its nature ? I ven- 
ture to say that in the great majority of such 
cases, just so soon as the danger passes the dis- 
tress on account of sin also passes. Vows that 
were then made are soon forgotten. This dis- 
tress over his sin was not because, in itself, it 
was hateful to him, but because he dreaded 
punishment. It was the fear of hell, and not 
a desire to become holy, that influenced him. 

Is it not, therefore, evident that one should 
not put too much confidence in death-bed re- 
pentance? I believe that many have given 
themselves to God on the death-bed. But have 
we not great reason to think that many who 



Repentance. 



129 



have thus professed to have found the Saviour 
were not influenced by a desire to become holy 
for its own sake, but were only frightened into 
it ; and if they had recovered, would, like many 
others, have gone back into their old ways of 
living ? 

Now, what lesson should we learn from this ? 
Perhaps there are some here who are saying, 
Wke?i I come to die, I will repent. But how do 
you know that you will ? If you are thus de- 
liberately putting off your salvation, does it not 
mean that you do not desire holiness, but 
simply wish to escape the punishment due you 
on account of sin ? And if you have that feel- 
ing now, is it not probable that you will also 
have it when you stand face to face with death ? 
But that is not true repentance, without which 
you cannot get to Heaven. 

Then let me say to such, do not trifle any 
longer with your eternal welfare. Go to God 
now while you are in health and strength, and 
give yourselves to Him for time and for eter- 
nity; not that you may escape punishment, 
but that you may be freed from sin. 



130 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



But I note again that while the sinner who 
is outwardly depraved, cannot truly repent 
without having, as a result of that repentance, 
outward reformation, he may have an outward 
reformation without true repentance. The 
blasphemer may refrain from his former blas- 
phemy, the rogue may become honest, the 
drunkard may become a sober man, the liber- 
tine may forsake his vices, without truly re- 
penting of their sins. Other feelings may prompt 
the change. Reputation, a desire to be a man 
among men, to attain to worldly success, or to 
please loved ones, a loathing toward his special 
besetting sin because of its degrading effects — 
these and similar feelings may sometimes rouse 
one to effect an outward reformation. Now 
such a change is good so far as it goes. It is 
always better to have purity of speech than 
blasphemy, honesty than rascality, sobriety 
than drunkenness, virtue than vice. But the 
trouble with a mere outward reformation is 
that it does not go far enough. It is simply 
taking away one of the effects while the cause 
is allowed to remain ; it is but cutting off a 



Repentance. 



branch while the tree itself is left standing. In 
other words, it does not affect the person's 
heart. The fact that that is disloyal to God may 
not receive from him one moment's consider- 
ation. His affections are still earthly. He has 
no sorrow over a sinful nature, no hatred of sin 
because of its sinfulness, because it is a viola- 
tion of God's law, no longing for a time when its 
last vestige in him shall be destroyed, when he 
shall be restored to the image of God — holy as 
He is holy. If he is not fully contented with his 
present state it is because earthly things cannot 
satisfy the cravings of the soul, not because he 
is sick of sin and is longing for perfect purity. 
Though he is outwardly reformed, he is still in- 
wardly depraved, and needs to repent of his sins 
just as much as he ever did. Mere outward ref- 
ormation only looks manward, and but affects to 
a degree the outward deportment ; true repent- 
ance looks Godward, and affects the whole life. 

And now let us consider some of the ele- 
ments of true repentance. 

When one repents, he must have a right idea 
of sin. He does not view it as simply an ec- 



132 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



centricity, a weakness, a misfortune, but as a 
violation of right, as a sin against God. He 
does not confine this view to sins that are spe- 
cially heinous, but to sin in its nature. A wrong 
thought or an omission of duty he considers a 
sin against God just as much as an overt act 
of transgression, even though there may be a 
difference in the degree of heinousness. He 
realizes, too, that he himself is a sinner. Pre- 
vious to this he might not have been able to 
see much that was wrong in himself, but a great 
deal in others; but now the language of his 
heart is, " I have sinned against heaven, and in 
Thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called 
Thy son." * One may not, indeed, have such 
deep feelings as some have experienced. While 
many at the new birth have felt great anguish 
on account of their sins, there are others who 
have entered peacefully into the kingdom. 
Some of them cannot even tell when they were 
born again. But yet they realize their own sin- 
fulness in the sight of God, and humble them- 
selves before Him. 

* Luke xv. 21. 



Repentance. 



133 



But not only does the repentant one realize 
that sin is a violation of the law of God, and 
that he himself is a sinner, but his affections 
are also changed. Instead of loving sin he 
hates it ; instead of disliking holiness he craves 
after it. He does not think so much of reward 
and punishment as of right and wrong. And 
his will, being on the side of right, will thus 
manifest itself in his life. He will forsake his 
old sins, and strive to live to God's glory. 
Walking " by the Spirit," he "shall not ful- 
fil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth 
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the 
flesh ; for these are contrary the one to the 
other ; that ye may not do the things that ye 
would." * That is, the flesh wars against the 
Spirit in order that we may not do the things 
the Spirit .wishes us to do ; while the Spirit wars 
against the flesh in order that we may not do 
the things the flesh wishes us to do. There- 
fore, the Apostle argues, as these are contrary 
to each other : if one gives himself up to the 
Spirit, if he walks by His rule, he will not 
* Gal. v. 16, 17. 



134 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



practice the things of the flesh. This does not 
mean, however, that we will attain to sinless- 
ness here. While in this life the Christian 
comes very far short of his aspirations. The 
old nature, though crucified, is still there ; for 
crucifixion is a lingering death. With St. Paul 
the Christian exclaims, " O, wretched man that 
I am ! who shall deliver me out of the body of 
this death?"* Yet, walking "by the Spirit," 
he will always be honestly striving Godward ; 
and as he strives he will always be getting 
nearer to the Christlike character. So, should 
you ask me, What, in a word, is a good evi- 
dence of true repentance? I would say, To 
hate sin and to love holiness, to depart from 
evil and to do good. Any repentance that will 
not stand this test is spurious. 

Having considered the nature of repentance 
let us look for a moment at its necessity in 
order to salvation. This might be viewed from 
two standpoints. 

1st. That of divine law; and 

2d. Our own personal character. 

* Rom. vii. 24. 



Repentance, 



*35 



1st. Divine law. 

Sin is a violation of God's law. A com- 
munity living in sin is in open rebellion against 
God This is equally true of an individual or a 
whole race. The sinner is a rebel ; a com- 
munity of sinners is a community of rebels; 
a race of sinners is a race of rebels. 

A rebellion is sometimes justifiable. When 
a government is tyrannical, peaceful remon- 
strances having failed, I believe in an appeal to 
arms and to the God of nations. I believe that 
the people of these United States of America 
were justified in rebelling against the tyranny 
of George III.; and that right was vindicated 
and liberty enthroned with their success. I 
Would hail with gladness such a revolution in 
Russia as would forever drive despotism from 
its throne, and give to her people the rights of 
which God and nature have made them the 
lawful heirs. Whenever a rebellion has Right 
on its side, its seeming violation of the fespect 
due to government is in obedience to a higher 
law — the law of equity. Under such circum- 
stances, even though the rebellion be crushed, 



136 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



the government in reality loses none of its true 
dignity by giving a full pardon to all the rebels 
and granting them their just demands. Great 
Britain acted thus with the Dutch Boers of 
South Africa when she might have forced them 
into subjection ; and the world has honored 
her for it. 

But suppose that a body of men should rebel 
against good government, against good laws, 
against right, the case would be altogether differ- 
ent. Suppose, too, that the government having 
offered pardon and restoration to all the privi- 
leges of citizenship to those of the rebels who 
would submit, certain of them rejected these 
offers, and held out in their wicked rebellion, 
what should be done with them ? Rewarded 
or punished? You would say, The honor of 
the law must be upheld. If we are not to have 
anarchy instead of order the government must 
inflict on them the penalty of their crime. 

Now apply this principle to the question in 
hand. God's government is absolutely just. 
He rules the universe with perfect equity. 
The best of earthly governments may make 



Repentance. 



137 



mistakes ; but the All-Wise Governor is free 
from even the possibility of error. Moreover, 
the code of moral laws which He has given us 
is for our own good. They are not made in a 
whimsical, arbitrary way, but are eternal in 
their principle. Even if God had not given 
them to us, to go contrary to what they teach 
would bring shame and misery upon us. So 
you see that God does not arbitrarily make a 
moral law, and say, Because I made this the 
violation thereof will be in itself injurious to 
you ; but He knows what would in itself be in- 
jurious to us, and demoralizing to good govern- 
ment, and He forbids us by His law from do- 
ing these things. 

But notwithstanding that he had such a 
ruler, man deliberately rebelled against Him. 
But God loved man ; therefore, that He might 
consistently offer pardon to the guilty, the 
Second Person of the Godhead satisfied the 
honor of the violated law. And now the 
proclamation goes forth to all rebels, that if 
they will but submit themselves through Jesus 
Christ, and become loyal citizens — if they will 



138 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



hate sin and love holiness, if they will depart 
from evil, and do good, they will be saved. 
Now suppose that any still hold out in re- 
bellion, suppose they still spurn the authority 
and love of God, if the honor of the divine law 
is to be upheld, if all of God's moral creation is 
to be impressed with its sanctity, the penalty 
must be enforced. So you see from the stand- 
point of divine law that repentance is neces- 
sary if we would be saved from its penalty. 

2d. Our own personal character. 

Salvation is something more than escape 
from the penalty of the law. It also means 
freedom from the power and defilement of sin. 
For the penalty is only the consequence; sin 
itself is its cause, and is the greater evil. Now 
how can we be freed from sin ? We must come 
under the transforming influences of the Holy 
Spirit. But in what way? As machines, or as 
creatures of free will? Certainly as creatures 
of free will. No man is forced into God's 
kingdom ; no man in possession of his faculties 
can be purified from sin and fitted for Heaven 



Repentance. 



139 



without the concurrence and co-operation of 
his own will. Such would be a moral impossi- 
bility, a contradiction in itself. But we cannot 
have this concurrence and co-operation of the 
will without repentance ; for repentance itself 
is a "change of mind," a going over of our af- 
fections and will from Satan to God. 

So, looking at the question either from the 
standpoint of divine law or of our own per- 
sonal character, reason, as well as the Word of 
God, tells us that in order to be saved we must 
have a change of life, that we must repent, that 
" except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." * 

Therefore in God's name I call upon those 
who are living away from Him, who are in re- 
bellion against Him, to repent. But perhaps 
you say, How can I ? Is not my nature so de- 
praved that I cannot of myself turn to God ? 
While I detest certain mean, sinful actions I 
cannot hate sin in its very nature, as something 
that is in opposition to God. While I admire 
certain actions that come from having Christ in 
* John iii. 3. 



140 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



the heart, I cannot love holiness. Now why- 
ask me to repent when of myself I cannot do 
so ? To this I would reply, It is true that you 
are not able of yourself to change your affec- 
tions from the things of this world to God. 
The spirit of repentance must come from God 
Himself. And so St. Peter, speaking of Jesus 
before the Jewish Sanhedrin, said, " Him did 
God exalt with His right hand to be a Prince 
and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, 
and remission of sins." * St. Paul, writing to 
Timothy, says, " In meekness correcting them 
that oppose themselves ; if peradventure God 
may give them repentance unto the knowledge 
of the truth." f We read, too, how when Pe- 
ter reviewed the case of Cornelius before his 
Jewish brethren, they "glorified God, saying, 
Then to the Gentiles also hath God granted 
repentance unto life." % 

Yet, though Scripture and experience declare 
that repentance is a gift from God, both the 
Scriptures and conscience throw the responsi- 
bility of repentance upon man. God " com- 

* Acts v. 31. 1 2 Timothy ii. 25. \ Acts xi. 18. 



Repentance. 141 



mandeth men that they should all everywhere 
repent." * 

But does God ask us to do something that 
we cannot do ? I will answer this question by 
citing the case of the man who had the wither- 
ed hand.f It was powerless; yet Christ told 
him to stretch it out. Suppose the man had 
said, You must be mocking me, for you know 
I cannot do so ; and had refused to try, would 
life have been restored to his hand? I think 
not. But in obedience to the command he 
made the attempt, and divine power healed 
him. So when God calls upon us to repent we 
may be sure that He is not mocking our weak- 
ness. He in effect tells us that we cannot do 
this of ourselves ; but if we wait upon Him, 
His Spirit will impart it to us. It will effect in 
us "A change of mind," or as we say, "A 
change of heart," so that we will hate sin and 
love holiness, and depart from evil and do 
good. We must, therefore, use the means of 
grace. If we do not so, we are responsible for 
the loss of the blessings, repentance included, 
* Acts xvii. 30. t Luke vi. 6-1 1. 



142 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



which a diligent use of these means would 
bring to us. 

Now if any of you have not this true repent- 
ance, ask God for it. Always keeping the mat- 
ter before you as the most important thing of 
life, continually plead with God. State your case 
to Him, squarely and honestly, and ask Him to 
help you. Did not Christ say, "Ask, and it 
shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you." " Or 
what man is there of you, who, if his son shall 
ask for a loaf, will give him a stone ; or if he 
shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent ? If 
ye then, being evil, know how to give good 
gifts unto your children, how much more shall 
your Father which is in heaven give good 
things to them that ask Him ? " * Then pray. 

You should also study God's word. Do not 
read it as a routine duty which has to be gone 
through with ; but study it prayerfully, in order 
that you may know God's will concerning you, 
and that you may comply with it. 

Also read books of a religious nature. I do 
* Matt. vii. 7, 9-i i ■ 



Repentance. 



143 



not mean that because a certain book treats on 
religious subjects you should read it. It may 
not be written in a way that will do you any 
good. Some religious books help some per- 
sons ; others help other persons. Read such as 
will interest and help yourself. 

Attend the Lord's house. Before you go 
there ask God for a blessing on the services; 
and look for some message for yourself. 

If you are practicing anything that is sinful, 
anything that your conscience does not ap- 
prove, give it up as you would something 
which you felt to be injurious to your best in- 
terests. 

In short, use all the means of grace. " Strive 
to enter in at the strait gate." * Thus make 
the effort to stretch out the withered hand, 
and you, too, will be healed by divine power. 
" Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to 
you." f 

* Luke xiii. 24. f James iv. 8. 



VII. 



CHRISTIAN UNITY AND HUMILITY. 

" Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory ; but 
in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better 
than themselves."— Philippians ii. 3. 

Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles, is 
in Rome, a prisoner for the Gospel's sake. 
Thinking that he might be in straitened cir- 
cumstances the church at Philippi sent him a 
contribution by Epaphroditus. This worthy- 
man, through his zeal to advance the cause of 
Christ, becomes very ill. To use Paul's own 
words, " For the work of Christ he was nigh un- 
to death, not regarding his life, to supply your 
lack of service toward me." * However, hav- 
ing recovered, he becomes, perhaps we might 
say, homesick ;f and so Paul sends him back, 
making use of this opportunity to send also a 
letter to the church of Philippi — the first-fruits 

* Phil. ii. 30. f Phil. ii. 26. 

(i44) 



Christian Unity and Humility. 145 



of his labors in Europe, his beloved church, or 
as he himself expresses it, " My joy and crown." 

The question may be asked, What was there 
in the state of this church that drew forth from 
Paul the strong appeal to unity and humility 
which the first eleven verses of this 2d chapter 
contain ? Some writers hold that it was divided 
into factions like the churches of Corinth and 
Galatia ; that the Judaizing element had crept 
in and propagated their doctrines in opposition 
to the more Christian teaching of the Apostle. 
They see in this his reason for urging them to 
unity; and for the warm denunciation of the 
Judaizing teachers, in the 3d chapter — " Be- 
ware of dogs, beware of evil workers, be- 
ware of the concision." There is no just 
ground, however, for this opinion. There does 
indeed appear to have been some difference, we 
know not of what nature, between two promi- 
nent women, Euodia and Syntyche ; for in the 
4th chapter he exhorts them "to be of the 
same mind in the Lord." But the tone of the 
epistle is so commendatory that we see no rea- 
son for supposing that the church had been di- 



146 At the Place which is called Calvary. 

vided by faction. The reason for this strong 
appeal to unity may be found elsewhere, You 
will remember that these Judaizing teachers 
had tried to draw some of the other churches 
from the simplicity of the Gospel. Those of 
Corinth and Galatia they had already split into 
factions. We read, too, how when Paul was in 
Antioch " certain men came down from Judea 
and taught the brethren, saying, Except ye be 
circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye can- 
not be saved." * Even in Rome, where Paul 
was now a prisoner, they were doing their ut- 
most against him. Of these he no doubt 
speaks in the first chapter of this Epistle. In 
the fifteenth verse he says, " Some indeed 
preach Christ out of envy and strife." In the 
sixteenth verse he adds that they "preach 
Christ of contention, supposing to add afflic- 
tion to my bonds." Now no doubt the question 
often came to the Apostle whether these Judaiz- 
ing teachers would ever assail his beloved 
church at Philippi, and divide it into factions. 
With this on his mind, and not because they 
* Acts xv. 1. 



Christian Unity and Humility. 



H7 



had already caused dissension there, he warns 
the brethren against these and urges them to 
oneness of mind. He would also have them so 
absorbed in the cause of Christ as to exclude self : 
— " Let nothing be done through strife or vain- 
glory ; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem 
other better than themselves." 

Though our circumstances are different from 
those of the Philippians, yet human nature is 
the same as it was then. To us, therefore, as 
well as to them are these words applicable. 

" Let nothing be done through strife." What 
does this mean ? Did not Paul himself strive 
with Barnabas ? And we think that under the 
circumstances he was right. He also speaks ap- 
provingly of himself when he tells how at Anti- 
och he "resisted" Peter "to the face."* But 
here he says, " Let nothing be done through 
strife." What does he mean ? If we would 
look at the New Version we might get some 
more light on the matter. Instead of " strife " 
it uses the more correct word, " faction " — " do- 
ing nothing through faction." The idea is, that 

* Gal. ii. 11. 



148 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



we should do nothing through a " party spirit," 
through " a contentious spirit of faction." We 
must not fail to distinguish between this and 
" strife." When principle is at stake we must 
strive. We must be as firm as a rock. We 
must not only speak boldly, but if occasion re- 
quires it, we must act boldly, even though we 
have to stand alone, even though our only com- 
panions be the jeers of our opponents. He is 
but a coward or a knave who cries " Peace, 
Peace," when duty demands that the only con- 
dition on which we consent to peace is a com- 
plete victory for principle. All great reforms 
have been accomplished by heavy blows against 
strong opposition ; and the reforms of the future 
in which we will be called upon to act our part 
will only be obtained in the same way. But 
let us take care that the controlling power that 
makes us strive is " duty," and not " a conten- 
tious spirit of faction." For it is just possible 
that we may be on the side of Right, without 
being actuated by its spirit. Let us strive to 
emulate the noble British general, the Duke of 
Wellington, and your own illustrious soldier, 



Christian Unity and Humility. 



149 



s General Grant, who while they fought zealous- 
ly for their respective countries at the call of 
duty, yet hated war. 

But as there are times when it is our duty to 
strive there are also times when it is our duty 
not to strive. Hence the necessity of having a 
general rule to guide us. Let that rule be, Let 
us never be controlled by the contentious spirit 
of faction ; let us never mingle in strife except 
where principle demands it ; and then let us 
strive as if for all that we are worth. 

Now suppose we honestly endeavor to carry 
out this principle in daily life. I would special- 
ly draw your attention — 

1st. To the family. If there is one place on 
earth where things should run smoothly, it is 
in the home circle. When all the members do 
not endeavor, in the spirit of love, to bear one 
another's burdens, when they are not patient 
with each other's weaknesses, when the spirit 
of selfishness and faction takes possession of 
any one, things become very unpleasant for the 
whole family. 

Do you not know that to a great extent the 



150 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



home is the training-school for the State and 
the Church and for Heaven. That training, too, 
is done more by example than by precept. Lit- 
tle eyes see the way older ones go; and little 
feet are apt to run in the same direction. Let 
the home atmosphere be healthy, let it be fra- 
grant with courtesy, kindness, and love, and 
the children breathing that into their spiritual 
lungs will be blessed by it, and the cause of 
God will be thereby advanced. But let the at- 
mosphere be filled with the miasma of selfish- 
ness and Contention, and these children will be 
injured by it, and the cause of God will corre- 
spondingly suffer. Let each one of us, then, 
do our utmost to have love's sweet benediction 
rest upon our households. 

2d. To the church. There should be a spirit 
of unity in the congregation. We cannot al- 
ways think alike ; but in our differences let 
there be a spirit of love and forbearance. How 
easy it is to start a church quarrel. Some mat- 
ter comes up that should be settled without 
any difficulty. But the church members take 
sides on it. One side, perhaps both, will not 



Christian Unity and Humility. 151 



listen to reason. The affair grows from bad to 
worse, until the congregation is weakened, and 
the cause of Christ injured. And when some 
one asks the cause of the trouble, everybody is 
ashamed to think that such a mountain grew 
out of such a mole-hill. 

There should also be a spirit of unity between 
the different Protestant, evangelical branches 
of the Church. The cause of Christ has been 
scandalized by the factional quarrels of differ- 
ent denominations. At times, instead of fight- 
ing the common enemy, they have drawn their 
swords against each other. Often the cause 
has been so trivial that it has reminded us of 
the war among the Liliputians of which Dean 
Swift tells us in " Gulliver's Travels." In the 
kingdom of Liliput certain persons broke their 
eggs on the large end. These were called 
" Bigendians." Others, however, broke theirs 
on the small end. This difference of opinion 
as to which end of the egg should be broken 
was the cause of hard feeling between the two 
parties ; for each claimed that its way only was 
the right way. At last they went to war over 



1 52 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



it, and many thousands were slain on both 
sides ; although the law expressly said that one 
might break the egg on the convenient end. 

When denominations agree on the essential 
doctrines they should not let the minor ones 
raise a barrier between them. They should not 
quarrel about the end of the egg that is to be 
broken. I am not pleading for church union. 
I believe that the denominational system has 
done much good, and will still do good. That 
such a union will come some day I firmly be- 
lieve. But it cannot be forced. We are not 
ripe for it yet. In the meantime let us treat 
each other as divisions of the same army, fight- 
ing for the one grand cause, under the one be- 
loved Commander. Let us indeed be loyal to 
our own army corps. Let us strive to make 
that as efficient as possible. Let there be, if 
you please, an honest rivalry as to which shall 
capture the greatest number of strongholds 
from the enemy. But yet let each rejoice over 
the others' victories and mourn over their losses. 
For their gain is the whole army's gain ; their 
loss the army's loss. Let each strive to rescue 



Christian Unity and Humility. 153 



as many prisoners as possible from the Libby 
prison of sin, and drill them into valiant sol- 
diers for Christ ; but let none do anything to 
weaken the other. Let not one army corps, 
through a feeling of faction, strive to entice 
away soldiers from another corps. Such con- 
duct injures the cause of Christ, for it fosters a 
contentious spirit of faction. I am sorry to say 
that too often professing Christians rejoice more 
when a prominent member leaves his own 
church and comes to theirs than when one 
leaves the path of sin and turns to God. 

My dear friends, I do not say these things to 
you in the way of censure. So far as I know, 
this congregation does not believe in strength- 
ening itself at the expense of sister churches. It 
is but recently that I was very much pleased by 
having one of our Sabbath-school teachers say 
to me, " What shall I do ? There are children 
belonging to another church who want to join 
my class. I do not care to take them, because 
it might make a hard feeling ; but as they say 
they will not attend their own Sabbath-school, 
I do not like to turn them away. What shall 



154 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



I do ? " The answer I gave might be a good 
general rule to go by. I said, " Do not encour- 
age them to come. But if they will come, do 
not turn them away." This rule is also appli- 
cable to grown-up persons. If they attend other 
churches, do not encourage them to come to 
ours. But if they do come, make them wel- 
come. Treat them as brethren. 

We should strive to draw in those who do 
not attend any church. In this way let us build 
up our own congregation. And while we work 
and pray for our beloved Presbyterian Church, 
let us still be far more anxious to lead sinners 
to Christ than to make Presbyterians of them. 

" Doing nothing through faction." Wher- 
ever that contentious spirit of faction manifests 
itself, whether in social or ecclesiastical rela- 
tions, or elsewhere, it tends to engender hard 
feelings, and to do much injury. How neces- 
sary then for the welfare of the individual, of 
the family, of the church, how necessary if we 
wish to live in close communion with that God 
who has said, " Love one another," * to strive by 
* John xv. 12. 



Christian Unity and Humility. 155 



His help to obey this injunction, " Doing noth- 
ing through faction." 

But 2d. We are also admonished against 
doing anything through " vainglory." Or as 
we would say, " through show" to " appear well" 
to "glorify ourselves." This admonition is as 
applicable to us as to the Philippians. Ever 
since the time when our first parents listened 
to the seductive words of the Tempter, " Ye 
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," * 
this spirit of vainglory has been doing much 
mischief in the world. It has been one of the 
great disturbing elements. It has turned 
brother against brother, family against family, 
nation against nation. It has dried up the 
milk of human kindness in many breasts ; and 
shed rivers of human blood. Even now in the 
internal affairs of the country, when the power 
of the sword has given way to the ballot-box, 
this evil, disturbing spirit of vainglory still as- 
serts itself. Men cater to the lowest element, 
to the rabble and to the rum-shops, in order 
that they may rise to power ; though in doing 
* Gen. iii. 5. 



156 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



so they tread on broken hearts and on their 
country's honor. Even the Church herself has 
been assailed by this disturbing element. For- 
getting the lessons of humility which were 
taught by Christ and His Apostles, her leaders 
soon came to vie with each other for ecclesi- 
astical pre-eminence, and with earthly rulers 
for temporal power, so that she was rent asun- 
der by factions, and became exceeding vile. 
Vainglory ! Oh, what a power for evil it is. 
No wonder that Shakespeare says : 

" Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition ; 
By that sin fell the angels ; how can Man, then, 
The image of his Maker, hope to win light." 

Let nothing be done through vainglory. How 
necessary it is for us to keep these words ever 
before us. For this spirit seeks to control the 
very best actions in life. It prompts us to help 
the starving little child on the street, not that 
it might be benefited thereby, but that others 
may think well of ourselves. It is so pleasant 
to have persons speak highly of us, to have 
them say, " How kind-hearted he is." I won- 
der if any one of us has ever done a kind act 



Christian Unity and Humility. 157 



which would not have been done if no one but 
God and ourselves were to have known about 
it? Persons are tempted to give largely for 
educational purposes, for the alleviation of 
distress, ay, even for the printing of Bibles 
and for the evangelization of the heathen, in 
order that their names may appear in print as 
the generous donors of such and such an amount. 
In the work of bringing souls to Christ by direct, 
personal effort, one is often assailed by this 
same vain spirit. An inordinate desire to be 
well spoken of in church circles, to be known 
as having added so many hundred names to the 
communion roll, as having built up a congre- 
gation from weakness to great strength, often 
seeks to overshadow the desire to work for 
God's glory and the good of our fellow-men. 
Sad, indeed, will it be if at the Judgment-seat 
some who have been the means of bringing 
many souls to God will be found themselves 
to be castaways; to whom the judge shall say, 
You labored in order that you might receive the 
praise of men : therefore you have already re- 
ceived your reward. Even at the throne of 



158 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



grace, in the immediate presence of God, one 
is sometimes tempted to think more of how 
his fellow-men may regard his prayer than how 
God regards it. Vainglory says, " Use nice 
language, express deep thought, and then others 
will say, * Oh, what a fine prayer that was. 
How smart that person must be.' " 

There is no act so good that vainglory will 
not try to control it. How necessary, then, 
that we " watch and pray," that we take unto 
ourselves the whole armor of God that we 
may be able to resist the wiles of the Devil. It 
is not a sin to be tempted. The sin is in giv- 
ing way to the temptation. So, should we allow 
ourselves to be controlled by this spirit of van- 
ity, of self-glorification, our actions, good though 
they may be in themselves, will be as much of 
an abomination in God's sight as were the acts 
of those in our Lord's day who sounded a 
trumpet before them in the synagogues and in 
the streets, that they might have glory of men.*' 
Let us therefore strive by divine grace, whether 



* Mat. vi. 2. 



Christian Unity and Humility. 159 

we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do all 
to the glory of God. 

But the text not only enjoins upon us to ab- 
stain from doing anything through faction or 
vainglory, but it adds, " In lowliness of mind, 
let each esteem other better than themselves." 
What are we to understand this to mean ? Are 
we to consider another better than ourselves 
even though we may know that he is not? 
There are two persons. One of them is a most 
devoted child of God, the other follows Christ 
afar off. How can that devoted servant of Je- 
hovah, if he uses his intellect, say that that 
weak, sickly Christian is better than he ? He 
cannot. When he measures himself by God's 
standard of right, by Jesus Christ, he may feel 
that he is the chief of sinners ; yet he must see, 
when he compares himself with the lukewarm 
Christian, that that man is not so good as he is. 
What then are we to understand the Apostle to 
mean when he says that in lowliness of mind we 
should esteem others better than ourselves? 

The Greek word which is here translated 
" better" does not refer to moral goodness. 



160 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



The same word is used in two other places to 
denote temporal dignity. In Rom. xiii. I we 
read, " Let every soul be in subjection to the 
HIGHER powers." Meaning by " higher pow- 
ers " earthly rulers. In 1st Peter ii. 13 we read, 
" Be subject to every ordinance of man for the 
Lord's sake : whether it be to the king, as SU- 
PREME "; and so on. Now the words " higher " 
and " supreme " in these two passages, and the 
word " better " in our text, are all the same in 
the original. They are simply different trans- 
lations of the one Greek word. And so the 
text might read, " In lowliness of mind let each 
count other higher than themselves." You will 
remember that the Apostle is urging in favor of 
unity. He says, " If there is therefore any com- 
fort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any 
fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies 
and compassions, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be of 
the same mind, having the same love, being of 
one accord, of one mind." And then he as 
much as says, This means, of course , that you 
are not to do anything through faction ; you are 
not to be puffed up with a feeling of your own 



Christian Unity and Humility, 161 



importance ; but in honor you are to prefer one 
another. Having this spirit of love which binds 
all in unity, they would not be striving for pre- 
eminence, for " love vaunteth not itself, is not 
puffed up." And is not this what Christ taught 
when He washed His disciples' feet ? It was at 
the passover feast. They had been disputing 
among themselves who should be the greatest. 
Perhaps it was over the order in which they 
were to sit at the table. Who was going to 
have the place of honor? Who would have to 
take the lowest seat? And so Christ rises 
from supper, and taking off His upper gar- 
ments, He girded Himself with a towel, and 
poured water into the basin " like a slave who 
was about to perform the meanest service." 
And having washed their feet, He said unto 
them, " If I then, the Lord and the Master, 
have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash 
one another's feet. For I have given you an 
example that ye should do as I have done to 
you." In lowliness of mind He would have 
them count others higher than themselves. 
The Church has in this act of humility an ob- 



1 62 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



ject-lesson for all time. None of us should 
seek to rank above our brethren. Rather 
should we "gird ourselves with humility, 
to serve one another." * " In lowliness of 
mind " we should be ready to take the lowest 
seat. Let us learn to recognize our neighbor's 
worth as well as our own : — " Look not every 
man on his own things, but every man also on 
the things of others." 

Allow me to emphasize the words, " In low- 
liness of mind." We are not simply to take 
a lowly position. We may do that through 
vainglory. In our Lord's day the Pharisees 
took the chief seats that others might think 
well of them.f But the modern Pharisee, 
when it suits his purpose, takes the lowest 
seat for the same reason. His face and 
deportment on such occasions are put for- 
ward as signboards on which is written, 
" Look, everybody ; see how humble I am." 
And at the same time it is done through 
vainglory. Too many of these persons, like 
their prototypes, " devour widows' houses, and 
* i Peter v. 5. + Luke xi. 43. 



Christian Unity and Humility. 163 



for a pretence make long prayers.' ' * No, it is 
not a lowly position, merely, that the Apostle 
means. Neither does he simply refer to a lack 
of vainglory. One may be free from vanity ; he 
may treat others as if they were better than 
himself, but he may not have "lowliness of 
mind," in its highest and best sense. That im- 
plies a true opinion of oneself. We must real- 
ize something of our own unworthiness — that we 
are sinners by nature and by practice ; and even 
though we have been regenerated and are striv- 
ing to do right, whatever goodness we may 
have is not of ourselves, but is of God through 
Christ. As St. Paul says, " Not I, but Christ 
liveth in me." Or as John Newton once said, 
when he saw a person go by who was low down 
in the scale of humanity, " There goes John 
Newton, only for the grace of God." 

If we have this lowliness of mind will we not 
treat others as if they were better than our- 
selves ? 

Having, then, the same mind which was in 
Christ Jesus, who, though being in the form of 
* Mark xii. 40. 



164 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



God, made Himself of no reputation, and took 
the form of a servant for the sake of others, let 
us strive to do "nothing through faction or 
vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each count- 
ing other better than himself." 



VIII. 



BURDENS AND THE BURDEN- 
BEARER. 

" Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain 
thee : 

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 

— Psalm lv. 22. 

Eliphaz, the Temanite, one of Job's com- 
forters, expressed a solemn truth when he said, 
" Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly 
upward." * 

Sin has brought untold misery to mankind. 
It has left the race groaning under an intoler- 
able burden. But, blessed be God, " where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound." f 
White the servants of God are not exempt from 
trouble they have the divine assurance, " My 
grace is sufficient for thee : for my strength is 
made perfect in weakness." $ And so we turn 

* Job v. 7. t Romans v. 20. | 2 Cor. xii. 9. 

(165) 



1 66 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



with relief from the philosophical statement of 
Eliphaz to the trustful, faith-inspiring words of 
the Psalmist, 

" Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sus- 
tain thee : 

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 

I note in the first place that the Christian can 
cast his burden of temptation upon the Lord. 
I do not mean that one can go unnecessarily 
into the way of temptation, and reasonably 
expect that the Lord is going to help him. 
Neither do I mean that one is to do nothing 
himself, that he is not to put forth every effort 
against the assaults of Satan. The faithful 
Christian will keep out of forbidden paths ; he 
will do his utmost to resist the powers of dark- 
ness. But walk where he will and strive as he 
will, the tempter will assail him. 

But liable as we are to temptations of all 
kinds, many persons, if not all, are weak in some 
special point ; or in other words, they have a 
propensity to some particular sin. 

1st. There are those who have inherited this 
propensity. An acquaintance of mine told me 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer. 167 



some time ago of a friend who continually had 
to fight against the appetite for strong drink, 
although he himself had never tasted it. If in 
going past a saloon he caught the fumes of liquor, 
that terrible craving would assert itself. Here 
was an inherited propensity for strong drink. 
There are those, too, who have a strong pro- 
pensity to cruelty and murder. Others are of 
a morbid, jealous, suspicious nature. Others 
are disposed to be irritable, fault-finding, selfish, 
domineering. A friend of mine surprised me 
one day by telling how he had had to fight and 
pray for years against an inordinate love of 
money. I suppose there are many Christian 
men and women whom we little suspect, who 
day by day are assailed by an inherited pro- 
pensity to some particular sin. It is a con- 
tinual struggle with them. And oh, with what 
frequent longings must these look forward to 
the time when they shall stand around the 
throne of God, free from every temptation. 

2d. There are those who have acquired 
it. It has come to them as a result of 
their wrong-doing. Man, to a certain extent, 



1 68 At the Place which is called Calvary. 

has the shaping of his character in his own 
hands. If he cherishes the good, that character 
will grow purer and stronger. Solomon com- 
pares this to the light when morning dawns. 
He says, " The path of the righteous is as the 
shining light, that shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day." * But if one gives way to 
temptation, if he cherishes evil, the character 
will become fouler and weaker ; and especially 
that particular evil to which he is addicted, will 
continually increase in its power over him. 
Now, it is against this propensity to some par- 
ticular sin, acquired before their conversion, 
that many Christians continually have to strug- 
gle. For you know that when a man is con- 
verted his spiritual foes are not all overcome. 
His conversion means that he has turned over 
from the side of sin and Satan to God's side. 
But the same temptations assail him still ; 
though now instead of giving way he rights 
against them ; instead of loving the sin he hates 
it. The one who has been a drunkard has his 
appetite to fight against ; the former libertine 
* Prov. iv. 1 8. 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer. 169 



his foul imagination. He who has been un- 
truthful has to contend against untruthfulness ; 
he who has been dishonest against dishonesty ; 
he who has been a passionate man against his 
temper; the one who has been a slanderer 
against evil speaking. Is the struggle some- 
times a hard one? Hard! To the tempted one 
it sometimes feels as if all hell were in it. 

Then, too, one is sometimes unavoidably 
placed in circumstances that bring temptations 
that are exceeding severe. Among these might 
be named — 

1st. Ill health. The system is run down. I 
will not say that all such cases of illness are 
unavoidable. Many persons are ill because 
they do not take the care of themselves that 
they might. Some of them eat too much stuff, 
such as cakes and pastry, that is as hard to di- 
gest as India-rubber. Some do not take enough 
outdoor exercise when really there is nothing 
to hinder them. Some are so anxious to accu- 
mulate money or to build up a business that 
they take no time for recreation and not enough 
for sleep. To such I would say : Get better. 



170 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



Have more respect for the laws of health. 
But on the other hand, there are those who 
are thus ill through no fault of their own; 
some of them, perhaps, as a result of their 
obedience to the higher law of self-sacrifice 
for others- Now, if one is naturally in- 
clined to irritability or morbidness, if he has 
a tendency to sit down and weave out of his 
imagination grievances that have no foundation 
in real life, these things will likely become more 
aggravated if his system is run down, or if he 
is the victim of such a trouble as dyspepsia. 
Under such circumstances he will probably be 
fiercely assailed with temptations peculiar to 
such a state of body and mind. 

2d. The associations into which one is 
sometimes thrown. Christians are often placed 
in circumstances where they meet tempta- 
tions of social life, which they cannot escape 
— temptations of various kinds, but all strong 
and subtle. Day by day they encounter 
these fierce, relentless enemies. If they could 
get away from them they gladly would ; but 
they cannot. They have to grapple with them 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer. lyi 



in what may be a life or death struggle. At 
other times circumstances are such that one has 
to grapple with the fierce temptations of busi- 
ness life. The merchant feels the pressure of 
hard times. Large " book accounts " still re- 
main unsettled ; much of his goods that he 
counted on selling are still on the shelves. 
Notes are coming due, which he cannot meet. 
He wants to save his credit. He sees a way in 
which he can make so much money by taking 
advantage of some technical point. In the 
sight of God and of his own conscience that 
act would be dishonest, sinful. Shall he do it, 
or shall he not ? It is easy for us to say, " Do 
right but with that man it is a tremendous 
struggle. The employe* is asked to do some 
dishonest act, or to work on the Lord's day. 
It is easy for a man with a full purse, or who 
can get another situation, to say " No." But 
when one has a wife and a family of little ones 
to feed, when he has aged parents to support, 
and no other way open of earning a livelihood 
for them, it is not so easy to say, " I will not 
do that dishonest act " I will not desecrate 



172 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



the Lord's day." The greatest struggle I have 
ever had, or ever expect to have, was when I 
threw up a position where I was required to 
work on Sunday, and, because there was no 
other position to be had there, left my home and 
mother, trusting in God's promise that has since 
become so dear to me, " For them that honor 
me I will honor." * 

Now perhaps there is here some child of God 
who day by day is subjected to fierce tempta- 
tion. May be you have inherited or acquired 
some propensity to sin. Perhaps circumstances 
are such that Satan assails you with special 
power, and you find it hard to resist. Some- 
times the inward struggle is so great that you 
tremble from head to foot. At times you have 
almost given way ; or perhaps again and again 
you have stumbled. You are afraid that event- 
ually it may overcome you. Oh, what an awful 
burden this is. Then, brother, cast it on the 
great Burden - bearer, and He will give you 
daily grace for daily temptation. Do you not 
know that the heart of the Eternal is beating 
* 1 Samuel ii. 30. 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer. 173 



in sympathy with you ? The Bible says, " For 
we have not an high-priest that cannot be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities; 
but one that hath been in all points tempted 
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us there- 
fore draw near with boldness unto the throne 
of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may 
find grace to help us in time of need." * Trust 
God for the living present, and let not the un- 
born future disturb you. Put forth indeed 
every effort against temptation as if everything 
depended on yourself; but at the same time 
get close to God, and trust implicitly in Him. 
For " there hath no temptation taken you, but 
such as is common to man ; but God is faithful, 
who will not suffer you to be tempted above 
that ye are able : but will with the temptation 
also make a way to escape, that ye may be able 
to bear it." f 

" Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain 
thee : 

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 



*Heb. iv. 15, 16. 



1 1 Cor. x. 13. 



174 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



I notice again that the Christian can cast his 
burden of trouble upon the Lord. 

There are financial troubles. You sat down 
and made your calculations. You allowed a 
fair margin "to go and come on." But, as 
Burns so quaintly expresses it, 

" The best laid schemes of mice and men, 
Gang aft aglee." 

Something has turned up and upset your cal- 
culations. The ships have been delayed ; and 
Shylock demands the pound of flesh. Notes 
are overdue which you are unable to meet ; 
bills are coming in on which is written, " Can 
you oblige us by remitting at your earliest con- 
venience?" You are worried and troubled 
over it. The burden rests heavily upon your 
shoulders. Then while you do your very ut- 
most to better things, roll this burden of worry 
upon the shoulders of the Omnipotent. You 
feel, perhaps, that you cannot take these busi- 
ness troubles to God. Why can you not if you 
are walking in the path of duty, if your busi- 
ness is a legitimate one ? When it is His will 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer. 175 



that there should be farmers, merchants, me- 
chanics, and so forth, can we not do our work 
in His name, and to His glory? Not only can 
we, but it would be highly pleasing to the Lord 
to have His children, to have us, come into 
His presence at the close of the day and re- 
view that day's work. And if any one has 
been defrauded or oppressed by us, or in any 
other way has suffered wrong at our hands, to 
confess it to God, and to make it right with the 
injured one the very first thing next morning. 
If we have resisted temptation, if we have done 
some noble act, if we have set God's glory be- 
fore us, to thank Him for His divine grace which 
enabled us so to do. If we have had success in 
our business, gratefully to acknowledge it ; if 
we have had adversity, to cast our burden up- 
on the Lord, who will sustain us, who will never 
suffer the righteous to be moved. God delights 
in having His children commit their ways to 
Him in loving, childlike confidence. But let 
us not dictate to God in our troubles. When 
He takes a seat with us in our buggy, and on 
the way to glory He drives us down through the 



176 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



deep waters of affliction, let us not try to take 
the reins in our own hands. 

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, 
And lean not upon thine own understanding ; 
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, 
And He shall direct thy paths." * 

Then again there are the private troubles. 
Perhaps some of them are of such a nature 
that you do not care to let anybody know 
about them ; and yet they are all the harder 
to bear on that account. Day after day they 
rob life of its pleasures ; night after night you 
lie awake over them. Sometimes you feel the 
big tear - drops stealing down your cheeks ; 
sometimes your sorrow is so deep that you can- 
not find relief in tears. Oh, how consoling it 
would be to lay all your troubles on some big, 
loving heart, one that you could trust, one that 
could fully sympathize with you. Do you not 
know that there is such an One, that He 
dearly loves you, and wishes to bear your bur- 
den for you ? It is the Eternal God, the Cre- 
ator and Ruler of Heaven and earth, who longs 

* Prov. hi. 5, 6. 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer. lyy 



to have you come to Him, as a child would to 
its loving mother, and laying your head on His 
bosom, to tell Him all your griefs. He says, 
" As one whom his mother comforteth, so will 
I comfort you." * 

" Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sus- 
tain thee : 

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 

But, perhaps, more crushing still are family 
troubles. 

It is supposed that the occasion of this Psalm 
from which my text is taken, was the wide- 
spread conspiracy of Absalom to seize the 
throne of his father. David was having a 
hard time in his family. He had himself, 
years before this, broken up another family in 
a mean way; and though he had bitterly re- 
pented of it, he was reaping what he had 
sown. He was now an old man, and his son 
whom he loved was plotting against him. His 
trusted adviser, Ahithophel, whom he had treat- 
ed as a " companion " and " familiar friend " f 
had also joined the conspirators. Why did he 

* Isaiah lxvi. 13. t Ps. Iv. 13 ; Ps. xli. 9. 



178 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



not nip this rebellion in the bud ? We learn 
from the 41st Psalm, which was evidently writ- 
ten at an earlier stage of this conspiracy, that 
he was very ill. There he prays that God 
would have mercy upon him, and raise him up 
that he might "requite them" — that is, that he 
might punish the conspirators. When this 
55th Psalm was written, the conspiracy had 
become very strong; and it is probable that 
he had not yet so far recovered from his illness as 
to possess sufficient strength of body or of mind 
to deal with it. Then, too, his love for his rebel- 
lious son, and perhaps a sense of God's judg- 
ments upon himself on account of his own great 
sin, might have unnerved him. In his trouble 
he pours out his soul to God. He says: 

" I am restless in my complaint, and moan ; 
Because of the voice of the enemy. 

My heart is sore pained within me ; 

And the terrors of death are fallen upon me. 

Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, 

And horror hath overwhelmed me, 

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove ! 

Then would I fly away, and be at rest." * 

* Ps. Iv. 2, 4-6. 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer, 179 



But though his trouble is great, he remem- 
bers that God still reigns. And so addressing 
himself he exclaims : 

M Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain 
thee : 

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 

Family troubles ! But these are not confined 
to David's time. Multitudes are groaning 
under them now. Starvation stares many a 
family in the face. Only those who have passed 
through such a trouble can realize the humilia- 
tion that is attached to it, the anxiety which is 
so apt to oppress one. Little mouths have to 
be fed ; perhaps there is a sick one that needs 
special care. But if you are a servant of Je- 
hovah, if you are doing your best to keep the 
wolf from the door, you can with confidence 
cast your burden upon the Lord, trusting that 
He will give you what is best for you. Christ 
says, " Are not five sparrows sold for two far- 
things? and not one of them is forgotten in 
the sight of God. But the very hairs of your 
head are all numbered. Fear not: ye are of 



180 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



more value than many sparrows." * If God has 
seen fit to send this affliction, He has some 
wise end in view. Remember that an empty- 
cupboard often brings fatness of soul, for it 
sends us to Him who alone is the source of 
true life. 

With others it is the death-angel that alarms 
them. His shadow falls upon the face of some 
loved member of the household. They are 
afraid that finally, having baffled medical aid 
and gentle, skilful nursing, he will swoop down 
and take that loved one from them. 

With others a darker shadow than even 
death's has crossed the threshold. Full rein 
has been given to appetite and passion ; and 
the dissipation and disgrace of one member have 
well-nigh broken the hearts of the rest. 

With others there is a skeleton in the house. 
It may be hidden from outsiders. When they 
come in it is shut up in the closet ; but when 
they go away it is taken out again. In many 
families where things are supposed to go nicely, 
and all are happy, some noble heart is breaking 
* Luke xii. 6, 7. 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer. 1 8 1 



because of ill treatment ; while to keep up ap- 
pearances the face is forced to wear a smile. 
Family troubles'! How often is that place 
which should be the type of Heaven turned 
into the ante-room of Hell. But oh, breaking 
heart, while before the cold, unsympathetic 
world you have to wear a smile, you can tell 
all your troubles to Him who 

— " healeth the broken in heart, 
And bindeth up their wounds." * 

He may not take them away ; but if not, 
He will give you strength to bear them. 
He says, " My grace is sufficient for thee : for 
my strength is made perfect in weakness." f 
We sometimes hear persons say, " I do not 
know how I ever survived those troubles." 
Well, I can tell how some have been able to 
bear up so well. Day by day they cast their 
burden upon the Lord, finding in Him " a very 
present help in trouble." % Day by day let us 
cast our burdens upon Him. Let us not look 
ahead to the dark, unknown to-morrow, and 

* Psalm cxlvii. 3. t 2 Cor. xii. 9. % Psalm xlvi. 1. 



1 82 At the Place which is called Calvary. 



borrow anxiety from it. If to-morrow brings 
its special trials our God will give us special 
grace. " As thy days, so shall thy strength 
be." * " Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth 
our burden." f 

" I know not what may befall me ; God spreads a mist 

before my eyes ; 
At every step on my onward path He makes new 

scenes to rise ; 
And every joy He sends me 
Comes with a sudden and strange surprise. 

" I see not a step before me, as I tread on another 
year. 

The past is still in God's keeping; the future His 

mercy will clear ; 
And what looks dark in the distance 
May brighten as it grows near. 

" It may be the bitter Marah is less bitter than I think ; 
The Lord may sweeten the water before I come to 
drink. 

But if Marah must be Marah 

He will stand Himself by the brink. 

" Oh, blessed, happy ignorance ! 'Tis better not to 
know. 

It keeps me so still in the tender arms that would not 

let me go ; 

* Deut. xxxiii, 25. t Psalm lxviii. 19. 



Burdens and the Burden-Bearer. 183 



It hushes my soul to rest 

On the bosom that loves me so. 

" And so I go on not knowing. I would not if I might. 
I'd rather walk with Him by faith, than go alone by 
sight — 

I'd rather walk with Him in the dark 
Tha» go alone in the light. 

" My heart shrinks back from the trials the future may 
disclose ; 

Yet I never had a trial but what the dear Lord chose. 
So I force the coming tears back 
With the whispered words, He knows." 



" Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain 
thee : 

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 



